At the end of the day… Vick Hope

I live on my own in Dalston, East London. Having grown up with three brothers and then living with friends for years, this is my first time having a sanctuary: a peaceful piece of London to myself. I love Hackney. You can get food from any part of the world. My mum’s Nigerian, and whenever she visits she goes to buy ingredients down the market. All my girlfriends live nearby.

I’ve always got my headphones on when I come in. I can’t have too much of a gap between the headphones coming off and the music going on. My balcony faces west, so you get the sun as it’s going down, lighting the whole room pink. And then I’ll light candles.

I used to cook a lot more than I do. Being on my own has made me a bit rubbish. When I was in a relationship, you take it in turns, there’s more of an impetus. But because my days are so long, I’m tired, and I haven’t had the time to shop for ingredients. Often I’ll just eat whatever’s there, or get a Deliveroo – there’s a place nearby called Café Roots which does chicken thighs in ginger and sesame oil, and it’s so good.

I try once a week to have a bath – it’s one of the great pleasures of life. I’ll do a crossword, or put a facemask on. Now that I’m almost 30, I actually have a decent skincare regime. It’s finally happened!

At the moment, I’m quite engrossed in writing a novel. With writing , you can’t switch off from thinking about what you can add, what you can change. Even when I was at uni, with dissertations and things, it was always ongoing. But I’m not great at writing at home. I usually have to go somewhere else, whether it’s a café or a bar with a glass of wine – just one! I also get a lot of inspiration when I’m out and about. I always make notes on my phone and, when I get home, I’ll get everything on to the page and start ordering my thoughts.

At the moment I’m reading The God Of Small Things. I’ve just read Things Fall Apart, and An American Marriage which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction. It really affected me. It’s fantastic. Barack Obama loved it, which is a great endorsement. It made me rethink things I thought I knew about society, about what I would do in so many situations.

At around 9pm we’ll get an influx of articles to read preparing us for the next day. But before I go to bed I’m often thinking about my mum and dad. We have a family group chat and we’ll say how our days were, and ‘I love you’. It’s not very rock and roll.

I go to bed much later than I should, and get up at half four every morning to present Capital Breakfast. I get between four and six hours’ sleep a night. But it’s not forever. It’s going to hurt, but it’s worth it. I’ve got used to functioning, but I know it’s not sustainable.

I’ve got some silky pyjamas but some mornings I wake up and find I’ve taken them off. I do sleepwalk, and sleep talk too. I’ve never done anything crazy, but it’s still embarrassing. Plus, I snore. It’s probably why I’m single…

‘Listen Up’, the new book by Roman Kemp and Vick Hope is available now