The loudest person in the room is an empty vessel. I used to jibber on – a sign of nerves. Now I allow the pauses, and say less than necessary. Waving came naturally to me. My earliest memory is being pushed down the street in a pram, the rain cover being hit by raindrops, and me waving at the people of Watford. My childhood wasn’t perfect, but there was lots of love. Dad was very English, a broadsheet reader – intelligent, but he never fulfilled his potential. Mum is hardworking – a Latin live-wire. It was a real cocktail of cultures. I don’t feel I achieved what I could have at school. I was always slightly distracted. I did OK, but my focus wasn’t there. Towards the end of my A-levels, I started to do well. Then life took me in a different direction. The Spice Girls doesn’t belong to the five of us – the band is everyone’s. We were a voice for the voiceless; expressing how so many people felt. Whether you were five, 15 or 25, through us people saw that they could be themselves. Yes, the music became a soundtrack to a time. But it went beyond – it was a movement. I can sometimes over-egg an omelette. Impatience is a bad habit of mine. I’m a solutions person, but often rush to find the answer, rather than sitting on a situation. Writing is my greatest joy. For me, it’s all consuming. I get to play God, in total control: will they live or die? Feel pain or fall in love? I can immerse myself entirely. I nearly drowned meeting Stephen Fry on the Nile River. We were filming for Comic Relief. Our bit involved me travelling down white-water rapids. Then ping, I fell out of the boat into a whirlpool. For a moment I didn’t know which way was up and which was down. It was terrifying. But somehow I escaped with nothing worse than a fat lip. I’ve become less selfish since becoming a mum. I’m no longer the priority. What I want to be as a parent, and what I am, are different things. I try to be firm but fair and fun – lately I’ve been the disciplinarian. Marry someone you like – who loves you for your best, worst and silliest self. Find someone you have fun with. There’s meaning behind every magpie you see. I always count them: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl… If you see one by itself, you must salute it. Wherever I am, I make sure to. Judi Dench is gorgeous, I love her to bits. When we first met, she invited me round for tea. I told her I’d been reading the Merchant of Venice. I started to quote some; she joined in. This Watford girl reciting Shakespeare with Dame Judi? I’ll treasure that forever. I’d like to go to Oxford University to study history and English. I said it out loud for the first time this morning. I’ve every intention of making it happen one day: keep an eye out for me in your lectures.