Jo Baker

Author portrait of Jo Baker

1. When were you happiest?

When I was seven.

2. What is your principal defect?

Excessive nostalgia.

3. What makes you depressed?

Cars – and the way our lives are designed round them.

4. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Its tiredness.

5. What is your favourite word?

pebble

6. What is your most unappealing habit?

Bitching about the state of the house.

7. What is your favourite smell?

Currant bushes

8. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Friday morning sneaking off for coffee and muffins with my husband, when the kids have been packed unceremoniously off to school and the childminder’s.

9. Who are your favourite writers?

Jane Austen, Joss Whedon.

10. What is the worst job you've done?

Kitchen Porter. The chef was bad tempered, bad-breathed, flirtatious, and married to the
head waitress. It didn’t make for a great working environment. And I came home every
night stinking of soup.

11. When did you last cry, and why?

Last November. Not a full-on blub, just a bit of a shocked fill-up. I fell off my bike – it really hurt – I still have a scar.

12. What do you most value in your friends?

Their staying-power. And their generosity. Thanks guys.

13. What gift would you most like to possess?

The ability to stop time itself.

14. What was your most embarrassing moment?

Recently, at a literary festival, I stopped Billy Bragg in the corridor to tell him I thought he was great. He was very nice about being waylaid by a complete (and slightly drunk) stranger, but I’ve been cringing ever since.

15. What is your most treasured possession?

My wedding & engagement rings. The engagement ring cost a whole fortnight’s dole when we had it made ten years ago (it’s mostly silver); the wedding ring was my husband’s grandmother’s, made in 1927.

16. What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?

‘You’re really nice. It’ll get you nowhere. ’

17. If you could edit your past, what would you change?

1991-1996

18. If you could go back in time, where would you go?

To an Estate Agents.

19. What is your greatest fear?

What the world will be like in twenty years’ time, and how the kids will cope.

20. What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Get on with it.