The DEFINITE ARTICLE

We ask a celebrity a set of devilishly probing questions – and only accept THE definitive answer. This week it’s Fake Or Fortune? host Philip Mould

The prized possession you value

above all others... My country home in Oxfordshire, Duck End. It’s a miniature manor house from the 1620s and its rich history bewitches me. The biggest regret you wish you could

amend... Selling a copy of John Lennon’s album Mind Games for 50p and a Crunchie bar when I was 11. It had been given to me by Julian Lennon – and was signed by his dad! Julian and I were friends at school in Liverpool. It was my first and most stupid deal. The temptation you wish you could resist... Zoning out when someone is droning on. I’m often caught out. The book that holds an everlasting resonance... Meadowland: The Private Life Of An English Field by John Lewis-Stempel. It’s profoundly understanding of nature. The priority activity if you were the Invisible Man for a day... I’d listen to what the Republican Party power players really say about Donald Trump. The person who has influenced you most... A lady called Xena Robertson, who ran an antiques shop near my home on the Wirral. When I was 11 or 12 she taught me how to read hallmarks on silver. It was like suddenly being able to decipher hieroglyphics.

The treasured item you lost and wish

you could have again... The opportunity to buy a crayon drawing of two eggs on a plate by David Hockney in 2000 for £12,000. I decided to think about it and a few days later it had gone. The piece of wisdom you would pass on to a child... You n e ve r know when opportunity will knock, so listen out for the slightest sound. The unlikely interest that

engages your curiosity... I’m addicted to ponds and ditches. I love the meditative power of water and the way it encourages wildlife and activity. Wonderful things happen around a hole with water in it. The film you can watch time and time again... It may sound pathetic but it’s Jurassic Park. I love the way it brings together fantasy, history and nature.

you’dThe figure most fromlike to historybuy a for pie whomand a pint...know how Shakespeare.he managed I’d to like pro-to duce sometimes two plays a year of such divine diversity. The pet hate that makes your hackles rise... The overuse of the word ‘amazing’. It’s become debased. The poem that touches your soul... The Lake Isle Of Innisfree by WB Yeats. Reading it transports me to an imaginary yet believable place. The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it... I would steal Gainsborough’s unfinished painting of his daughters Mary and Margaret chasing a butterf ly from the National Gallery. Its beauty always gives me a warm smile. The misapprehension about yourself

you wish you could erase... That I’m posh, simply because I have a posh voice. My heart is in the North but my voice changed when I went to boarding school in Sussex at the age of 13. The event that altered the course of your life and character... Being bullied in my first term at boarding school. It turned me into a survivor. The unending quest that drives you on... The hunt for lost art, especially finding faces in portraits that have been hidden by time, either under varnish or because they’ve lost their identities. The song that means most to you... Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles. It’s about identity, isolation, Catholicism – and the obscure allure of Liverpool. The way you would spend your fantasy 24 hours, with no travel restrictions... I would begin by foraging for fungi in Brittany with my wife Catherine and our son Oliver, 20. I’d cook those that were safe to eat on an open fire in milk with black pepper. Then I’d beat Tim Henman at tennis at Wimbledon before going to India for lunch. I’m a vegetarian (except for bacon and chicken!), so I’d have delicious local vegetables served on a banana leaf with lime juice and fizzy water to drink. Later I’d go trout fishing at Loch Leven, Scotland, in the shadow of the castle where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned. I’d have a glass of 25-year-old whisky before dinner, which would be at Sexy Fish in London. I’d have the vegetarian option with a good claret, and then end the day with the family at the Amanpulo hotel in the Philippines watching herons catch fish. The happiest moment you will cherish forever... The birth of my son. Seeing myself and my wife reconfigured in a new human being left me tearful. The saddest time that shook your world... The death of my mother in her mid-70s eight years ago. She was so loving but spent much of her life in a wheelchair after suffering from polio. The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you... To write my memoirs based around the history of personal objects. The philosophy that underpins your

life... If you can’t find the conventional way into something, then be imaginative and try a different route. The order of service at your funeral... I want it at St George’s church in Brailes, Warwickshire, with a full choir singing Ave Maria and then I’d like my ashes scattered on a pond at Duck End. The way you want to be remembered... He left the world a little bit better thanks to his work with nature and art. The Plug... Philip is on Antiques Roadshow tomorrow at 8pm on BBC1, and returns in Fake Or Fortune? next year. For details of his London gallery, visit philipmould.com.

‘I sold a signed copy of John Lennon’s Mind Games for 50p and a Crunchie bar when I was 11. My first and most stupid deal’

Right: Jurassic Park. Above: Indian food. Far right: Gainsborough’s painting of his daughters