What were you best at when you were at school?

Believe it or not, when I was very small at primary school my best thing was sport! Not the running around type – oh no! But I adored swimming, and I was very good at it. I was also really good at high jump and long jump – again, two sports that don’t require a lot of running! I used my asthma as an excuse for the rest of them!

I can’t remember any subjects I was really good at when I was small, except for reading and spelling. I was a champion speller! I have always been a very fast reader, and when I left the school in Malawi the headmaster was delighted because I had read all the books in the school library! Not many people can claim to have read Dickens by age 9 – abridged or not!

When I got to secondary school it quickly became obvious that I was very good at modern languages. For my Highers I did English (B), French (A), Spanish (A), Italian (A) and Modern Studies (D). I have never counted the Modern Studies, as I’ve always considered the D to be a fail – but people have got into universities on D’s! I only took the subject to fill in my timetable – there was nothing else I was capable of doing. I did pass all my Standard Grades which included sciences etc, but I had to have a tutor for maths. I did pass maths, quite well, but if you asked me to explain a quadratic equation I wouldn’t have a clue! Seriously, languages were it for me!

Lucky really, seeing as I now live in France!