Life and loves

Career high: Being the first reporter to broadcast from inside Iraq after the ground war had started in 2003. We had camped on the Kuwaiti border for two weeks before the war started and sneaked over the border on the day of the invasion.

Career low: The next day on finding out Terry Lloyd of ITN – a very good friend and mentor of mine – had been killed doing exactly the same thing on the road to Basra. Best advice received: In your career never be nasty to people on the way up (you will be on the receiving end on the way down!).

Best character trait: Fiercely loyal to friends and family.

Worst character trait: Impatience.

Favourite film: Blood Diamond. Set in Sierra Leone at the time of the civil war, the film was extraordinarily accurate about events I covered, including witnessing boy soldiers as young as eight with huge machine guns and thousands of young boys and men with their hands or arms chopped off as a punishment for not supporting the rebels.

Last book read:

“Argyllshire with Rod and Gun”, the diary of a sportsman from 1900 who visited our estate and fished our wonderful little river, The Add. He recounts tales of thousands of salmon in the river – there are fewer today but it is still a great little river to fish.

Favourite meal: Starter of local Argyll scallops steamed with ginger, garlic and spring onion, followed by medallions of red deer venison from the estate.

Favourite music: Runrig and Capercaillie.

Favourite holiday destination: Marrakesh. I spent many happy months there waiting for the launch of Sir Richard Branson’s balloon in an attempt to fly around the world. It is a magical city with great food, bustling souks and is only a three-hour flight from Glasgow.

Ideal dinner-party guests: Nelson Mandela, pictured, (one of the very few world leaders I never managed to interview), Bill Clinton (one of the most charismatic politicians I ever met) –and Billy Connolly, of course!