It won’t come as a surprise to discover that Carol Vorderman is a tad competitive – and never more so than when in the midst of a family quiz
In my experience
I’ve always loved quizzes and games. I grew up in an intensely competitive family and I remember spending a lot of time playing chess and board games.
At Christmas, the Monopoly board was permanently set out – the games would go on for days and days. My brother, Anton, was always the banker, although we had to make extra sets of paper money because our box had been picked up in a jumble sale and most of the Monopoly money was missing.
By the time I was old enough to really get into playing games, my sister, Trixie (who is 10 years older than me), had pretty much left home, and with my mum working long hours, Anton (who is eight years older) was often left in charge of me. We were very close. He taught me how to play chess properly, against the clock.
We’d play endless rounds of card games, too – gin rummy or the memory game, where you turn over two cards and try to identify as many pairs as you can.
But at Christmas, we’d descend on my Aunty Dilys and our cousins, who lived on a farm not far from our flat in north Wales. They all loved playing games as much as we did. Christmas was always great fun, with lots of silly games, often involving shouting out the answers.
My birthday is on Christmas Eve – I’m a proper Christmas Carol! – so I always felt as if the celebrations were held partly in my honour! I adore every single aspect of Christmas, from the roaring fires and carol singing to all the twinkling lights.
This year, I’ll be 63 and, although we don’t have any firm plans, as long as I’m with my children (Katie, 31, and Cameron, 26), I don’t care where we are. But whatever we do and wherever we are, there will definitely be quizzes and games peppered throughout the day. I love the idea of bringing everyone together after a big Christmas lunch, switching off the TV and getting stuck into a bit of friendly competitive rivalry. Doing quizzes at Christmas is such a great way to bring the different generations together. And they are so much fun!
PERFECT 10
Quizzes are very much my ‘thing’. I was a bit of a maths whizz as a child – all I ever wanted to do was sums – and I had 26 wonderful years completing fast word and number tasks on the TV show Countdown.
I also leapt at every invitation to appear on TV quiz shows. I used to love a pub quiz, too – it’s amazing how much information you accumulate over the years – but I don’t get invited much these days. It would be a bit like sneaking a professional footballer into a Sunday game!
The idea for my Perfect 10
