Under the microscope

Writer and former royal lady-in-waiting Anne, Lady Glenconner, 88, takes our health quiz

CAN YOU RUN UP THE STAIRS?

I CAN trot up the stairs. I wake up at 8am, go down to the kitchen, carry up my breakfast and eat it in bed — my great treat. I always go for a walk for 45 minutes every day.

GET YOUR FIVE A DAY?

ABSOLUTELY. More than five a day. I grew vegetables for about ten years but each cabbage cost about £10, what with the gardener. Now I try to buy fruit and veg in season.

EVER DIETED?

JUST after the war, I went to Powderham Castle, near Exeter, to learn how to run a stately home, including spending a fortnight with the cook as a sort of scullery maid. The food was much better than I’d ever had, and I put on so much weight that my mother hardly recognised me. I remember buying ‘silver pills’ — I don’t know what was in them, but it worked. Since then I have weighed myself regularly: I’m 11st and around 5ft 7in.

ANY VICES?

I CANNOT resist chocolate bars. I also love a vodka and tonic at lunchtime.

ANY FAMILY AILMENTS?

MY MOTHER was a chain smoker and died of emphysema at 70. My father died from a heart attack at 68. He was given quinine for malaria (which he had during the war) and this weakened his heart.

WORST ILLNESS/INJURY?

ABOUT four years ago I was playing with my grandchildren and I fell and broke a bone in my back. I had a TENS machine which got me through. The pain lasted about two years and the bone healed itself.

POP ANY PILLS?

I STARTED taking half a sleeping pill every night when my two eldest sons, Charlie and Henry, were dying [Charlie from hepatitis; Henry had Aids] and they thought my other son, Christopher, was going to die, too [following a car crash]. That was in the 1990s and I’ve kept on with it.

COPE WELL WITH PAIN?

QUITE well. I was bought up during the war by my aunt, Bridget Airlie, who was a Christian Scientist. She taught me pain was all in the mind.

IS SEX IMPORTANT?

IT DEPENDS who with. We never slept with anyone before marriage, which I think was a pity.

EVER BEEN DEPRESSED?

YES, the worst time of my life was the boys dying. I never took antidepressants — I don’t believe that’s a cure really. I think if you can, try to work through it oneself.

HANGOVER CURE?

A GREAT deal of water before going to bed and Alka-Seltzer.

ANY PHOBIAS?

RATS and mice. Also, needles.

LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?

I’D LIKE to, if I was well. I have every intention of living to 100.

Murder On Mustique by Anne Glenconner (£16.99, Hodder & Stoughton)