THE REAL ME
Lexicographer and Countdown star Susie Dent, 59, lives in Oxford
What are you like first thing in the morning?
There’s a great word in the English dictionary, which is matutinal. It means bright and cheery in the morning. I’m not quite that, but I’m OK as long as it’s not before 6.30, otherwise I’m a humgruffin and I barely get to the kettle.
What’s your worst habit?
Finishing other people’s sentences. I just don’t wait, I don’t allow the pauses, which is stupid really. I immediately think I know the word that they’re searching for, which is incredibly arrogant, because quite often it’s the wrong one!
If you were home alone, what would you do?
I’m quite a restless person so I will potter endlessly about the house with the radio on. If I really need to rest, then I will lie down on my bed, which is about the only place that I relax, and read. I’m reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – her writing is just breathtaking.
Where or what makes you happy?
Apart from my family, I would say walking in the woods. I love trees, they’re the things that recombobulate me and just bring me back down to earth. In Japan they have forest bathing, shinrin-yoku, where you go and you just breathe in the tranquillity of the forest. I love that idea.
Do you have any regrets?
Spending so long in my life worrying about what other people think – it’s such a waste of brain space and emotion. I also regret not staying in the US a little longer. I studied there after university and loved it. I knew I didn’t want to be an academic, but I loved New York and teaching, so I would like to have seen what happened if I’d stayed a little longer. It was a kind of crossroads moment for me and I don’t think that will come up again.
What are the best and worst things about ageing?
The best thing is that there’s less internal angst. I was quite good at that as a teenager and in my younger years! In Japanese there’s a word, shibui, and it means unobtrusive beauty, the kind that improves with age, so it’s like a smile, a wrinkled face or a beautifully honed piece of wood. I think we overlook that in our filtered environment. The worst thing is being shut out of conversation, not understanding the language of teens. I know we’re not supposed to, but it does mean the older you get, the more impenetrable it becomes.
What do you want most in life?
I’m going to bring up another old word, ataraxia, and it just means freedom from worry. That
