1. This is Edward. He’s 87 years old and, as you can see, somewhat the worse for wear. He was my mum’s teddy bear and then my teddy bear. Some 27 years ago, I tried to get my daughter to carry on the family tradition, but by then she had attached herself to a duck called Dorothy. Did you have a favourite soft toy (or other toy) as a child?
2. A few weeks ago, I had a Viennese Whirl for the first time in about 40 years, and – like the narrator of Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’ involuntarily recalling an episode from his youth after tasting a madeleine dipped in tea – I was magically transported back to my 1970s childhood. What food or drink evokes the most vivid memories of your childhood?
3. I got rather improbably lost in Richmond Park last weekend. I thought I knew the area fairly well, but – trying to meet up with friends at a particular meeting spot and with no network coverage on my phone – I spent a wildly frustrating half hour or so in what felt increasingly like a Bermuda triangle. When have you got hopelessly or unexpectedly lost? How was your experience on a scale from joyfully liberating to maddeningly disastrous?
4. I am cursed by a phobia of seaweed. For many decades, my family laughed this off, but a few years ago my daughter (bless her) decided to take it seriously and devised a therapeutic programme to help me at least partially overcome the curse. Do you have any phobias or irrational fears?
5. You get to form your very own supergroup from musicians dead or alive. Let’s say one singer and a maximum of four other musicians. No two people from the same group in real life. The more unlikely (but effective) the combination, the better. For bonus points, what would you call your supergroup?
The 'Spill 