It felt like waiting for my French A Level Oral examination about a hundred years ago; as if I was about to have my basic and [ let’s be honest here ] pretty shaky, spoken French tested by someone who, if not a native speaker, had an awesome fluency and an encyclopedic vocabulary.

I was waiting at 7.25am this morning to interview by telephone the iconic broadcaster, and interviewer par excellence, Libby Purves for my June podcast. I have met her on a couple of occasions and she has always been unfailingly lovely and easy. Perhaps there was something about waiting with headphones on, and microphone about 15cms from my face, which made it all the more nerve wracking, as if I was pretending to be Radio 4.

In the event the interview went like a dream; she was wonderfully honest and said some fascinating things about her latest novel Shadow Child. You will be able to hear it on June 1st.

I’m not sure whether I achieved a very high grade, but I think I may have passed…