Emma Lee-Potter is a novelist and journalist. After studying history and politics at the University of York, she trained as a news reporter with Mirror Group Newspapers. She then worked for the Evening Standard, Sunday Express and Today. She is now a freelance writer and the author of three novels for grown-ups, Hard Copy, Moving On and Taking Sides, and one for children, The Rise and Shine Saturday Show. Emma lives in Oxford but spends as much time in France as possible. She blogs at House With No Name.
Why do you blog? > I love being able to write about subjects that interest me and ignore anything that bores me rigid.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Keep it short, edit ruthlessly, check spelling and grammar and post two or three times a week.
What are your favourite blogs? > Salut!, Greenslade, and Liberty London Girl.
What are you reading at the moment? > Blue Monday by Nicci French and The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst.
Who are your cultural heroes? > Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Patrick Heron, Colm Tóibin, Ian McEwan, Seamus Heaney.
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Germinal by Emile Zola.
What is your favourite poem? > 'Les Sylphides' by Louis MacNeice.
What is your favourite movie? > Woody Allen's Manhattan.
What is your favourite song? > 'Let's start a band' by Amy Macdonald.
Who is your favourite composer? > Albinoni.
Who are your political heroes? > Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi.
If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > Increase spending massively on one-to-one reading support for early years and primary school aged children who need it.
If you could choose anyone, from any walk of life, to be Prime Minister, who would you choose? > Lord Winston. He's compassionate, clever and talks so much sense.
What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world? > Population growth and lack of water resources.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life? > Have the very best time right now.
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > Definitely not.
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > Generosity of spirit.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > Meanness - in every sense.
Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge? > Men who wear socks with open-toed sandals.
What is your favourite proverb? > Carpe diem.
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time? > Golf, bridge and soaps (except The Archers).
What, if anything, do you worry about? > My teenage son's scary exploits on his BMX bike.
Where would you most like to live (other than where you do)? > South of France or New York.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Going to brilliant literary talks.
What is your most treasured possession? > Portrait of my two children by Lucy Dickens.
What talent would you most like to have? > To be fluent in French - I'm working on it!
Who is your favourite comedian or humorist? > Paul Merton.
Who are your sporting heroes? > Cyclist Tommy Simpson (for his immortal words 'Put me back on my bike').
If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for? > For the House with No Name (subject of my blog) to be finished and inhabitable.
If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner who would they be? > Michelle Obama, Anthony Howard, Ian Hislop.
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