Lorraine Kelly
With her debut novel hitting the shelves, TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, 64, discusses her happy marriage, love of penguins and her favourite place
Your parents were teenagers when you were born in Glasgow in the late Fifties. Did you like having such young parents?
They were both 18, and the advantage of having such a young mum and dad is that I’ve still got them living up in Scotland. Everybody else at school had conservatively dressed parents, but my mum was super cool and wore make-up and miniskirts.
My parents were trendy – they listened to the Rolling Stones and The Beatles – and everyone loved coming to our house.
What kind of a child were you growing up?
It was a very happy childhood. Then my wee brother Graham came along when I was six and my nose was well out of joint. He was the perfect child from central casting. Blond curls, big blue eyes, he was quite fat, like an angel cher ub. I was ghastly to him. I used to nip his arms.
What was the best advice your mum gave you?
The same advice as her mother gave to her: don’t keep anything for best. If someone gives you perfume, spray it on. My granny would spray herself with perfume to take the bins out. If someone gives you posh underwear, wear it!
Home for you and your husband Steve is on the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire. You’ve described it as eccentric…
It’s an old boathouse where boats were stored in winter and then it was turned into a house and wee bits have been added over the years. So it’s very higgledy-piggledy, but I love it. There are ornamental penguins everywhere. I love penguins. There’s a giant 6ft emperor penguin statue that sits in the garden facing south. In the summer, he wears giant sunglasses and in the winter, a wee scarf
I knitted him. He was a present from Steve for my 50th birthday. I love it more than any amount of diamonds – it’s much more romantic.
You’ve been married to cameraman Steve for 31 years. What role does he play in your life?
Oh huge. I couldn’t do what I do without him. When I was writing my novel, there were a lot of times when I was writing and he would just go out and get the shopping or make us tea or take the dogs, Angus and Ruby, for a walk enabling me to do what I needed to do, and that’s always been the case through our marriage. We’re not a showy, lovey-dovey couple. I like him, as well as love him, and he makes me laugh.
Tell us more about TheIslandSwimmer, your first novel…
I’ve been writing it at night and most weekends. It was a challenge but I loved it. It
