NOBODY’S ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT YOU

I’VE been a worrier for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, I worried that people would dismiss me as a boring swot because I always had my nose in a vocabulary book — usually in French or German.

I have a beautiful elder sister, Nicky, and I was constantly aware that I was never going to be as pretty as her. She was very supportive but I always wanted to be more like her and less of a geek. My constant fear was that people were judging me although, more recently, I’ve come to an understanding that that needn’t be in a negative way.

My work, my love of words, became my refuge, both when I was working on bilingual dictionaries for Oxford University Press and then via my involvement with Countdown — and now Catsdown, as I call it. I know what I’m doing which makes me feel safe and in charge of myself.

All of that has given me a new-found confidence. Once, I would never have dreamt of going on a comedy panel show — I’m not a comedian — but I readily accepted being a part of Catsdown and I absolutely love it.

Looking back now, I wish I hadn’t spent so much of my life worrying that everyone was talking about me. To some degree, I now realise, it’s rather narcissistic to imagine people would find you so worthy of comment.

I’ve developed coping mechanisms. When I start to fret about something, I’ll now turn to a few trusted friends, among whom I count Nick Hewer and Rachel Riley on Countdown. They’re both so full of common sense and positivity.

I’m a work in progress. I’ve started doing spin classes, which always clears my head. And I recently opened a Twitter account with some trepidation, but I’ve found people to be surprisingly positive. They like sharing a passion for words which makes me realise, of course, that I’m not the only one.