Quotes from Arabella Weir

I wish my parents hadn't made me feel that how I looked was linked to how much they loved me. But I do also see how hard it must be to see your child pile on the pounds and trust they'll find their own way back to a healthy weight.

My dad was a diplomat and after living in America, where I was born, he was posted to Cairo.

Sticking to a diet required me to have a permanently low self-esteem. But happily, I developed other skills beyond a fluctuating weight, eventually building up a different source of self-worth.

I would like it to be a legal requirement for all businesses to be linked to a charity.

In the 20 long, hungry years between my late teens and late 30s I bought in to virtually every new diet and/or exercise regime that hoved into view, particularly at this most vulnerable time for those of us prone to poor body image - a new year.

Look, I want what's good for everybody. I want to promote good state education for all. I want to raise standards for all kids, irrespective of race and class but why can't they all just do what I say when I know I'm right?

There is so much that is positive, wonderful even, about state schools. At a state school your kids will learn to live alongside and appreciate other kids from many diverse and different cultures.

I cry at everything, even the length of the queue at Sainsbury's.

Society prizes a girl for being thin more than anything else she might bring to the table.

The real me now may not be thin but she's got the cake and, if she likes, can eat it too.

If one's honest about it, spending time in a car with children is pretty ghastly.

There is an inherent tolerance and kindness in the state school teenagers I know.

I spent my entire childhood living abroad because of my father's occupation, so we were on long-haul flights all the time.

If I'm hunting down gifts, I like to buy locally.

I don't understand boys - just ask my husband.

Both Plockton and the Isle of Muck in north-west Scotland are incredibly beautiful. Sadly, Plockton has been discovered by tourists because it's where they shot Hamish Macbeth.

I can't write about my greatest mistakes because I've slept with most of them.

I wish my parents hadn't made me feel that how I looked was linked to how much they loved me. But I do also see how hard it must be to see your child pile on the pounds and trust they'll find their own way back to a healthy weight.

I know a lot of people fear the rougher types who might be at a state school, but surely it is better to know who they are and how to deal with them than for that kind of child to appear as a completely different species to yours.

Success, in whatever form it takes, is a tricky thing - once you've achieved your goal, then what? Where do you aim?

Look, I want what's good for everybody. I want to promote good state education for all. I want to raise standards for all kids, irrespective of race and class but why can't they all just do what I say when I know I'm right?

Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

Why has everything got to be about feelings these days? In the old days, no one knew what anyone was feeling and, what's more, they weren't expected to.

There is so much that is positive, wonderful even, about state schools. At a state school your kids will learn to live alongside and appreciate other kids from many diverse and different cultures.