Mary Nightingale

“If you want to be famous, you can be. You can go to all the things you are invited to. But I don't take to that kind of nonsense.”

“The challenge of election broadcasting is to stick to the story and line.”

“We'll just unwind in the evening by going out as a family for a pizza where we'll meet up with other families we know from the children's school.”

“I was always anxious about whether I'd find a career I loved or be able to afford to buy a house.”

“Gradually, we fell in love with camper-vanning. It's a strange business to begin with - rather like driving a large, rather flimsy cardboard box. It's ugly, the suspension's appalling, you rattle around like pebbles in a tin, and you can't hear yourself speak above the engine.”

“I've always wanted to ride through the Pampas, and explore right down to the tip of Patagonia.”

“Life really is short, and you just have to go for it.”

“I have never had a problem with not being able to do anything just because I am on telly every day.”

“On screen you have to look elegant, understated and appropriate, and I used to spend masses on designer stuff, but now I get everything in Zara.”

“Newsrooms are still highly competitive, demanding environments. You have to be robust to hold your own amidst the alpha males and females.”

“I think in terms of being a good presenter, it's not as simple as having been out in a war zone. Actually the news is far broader than that.”

“We're never home later than 9:30 P. M. and once the children are in bed, Paul and I have some wine and watch a box-set such as Breaking Bad.'”

“I think the knowledge and education of young women is incredibly important.”

“The four rings on my wedding finger are all very significant - my wedding ring, my mum's wedding ring and the engagement rings of my granny and mother-in-law.”

“We spent our honeymoon at a fabulous place called the Grapevine Canyon Ranch near Tucson, Arizona, and totally fell for the City Slickers fantasy, so it would be wonderful to take the children there now that they are old enough to appreciate the thrill of cattle herding on horseback and sleeping out in the desert.”

“Young men and women start out with equal opportunities and ambition but so often that equality fractures as they reach their 30s and start reproducing. Is there really no way to make it work for those who want to have journalistic careers as well as children?”

“I don't think there is an era of autocuties. I think if there is such a thing as an autocutie they weed themselves out because they can't hack it.”

“First off, it's a bit of a tired old chestnut that if a woman is pretty than she can't be bright. God what are we in, the 19th century?”

“Modern girls are much more informed than we were. Modern girls seem to know more and there is openness.”

“Stats are stats but if you want to be sure you're going to have, say, three children with no problems, you should start at around 23.”