I grew up in a tiny West Yorkshire village called Goose Eye. There was no shop, we weren't even on a bus route. Most of my childhood was spent playing in a derelict mill with rotting floors, or swimming in the mill pond. The kind of activities parents would have meltdowns over these days.
The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane
I was a right girlie swot as a child. At about eight years old I won a Blue Peter badge for making a model of the great Thames Frost Fair of 1814 out of a cardboard box lid and a piece of perspex. What a swotty-pants.
Getting a job on Jackie magazine felt like the best thing that could have happened to a 17 year-old, especially as most of the staff were still teenagers themselves. It was a riotous time and many of us are still firm friends, over 30 years later.
Although I grew up in the country - and brought up my three children in rural South Lanarkshire, Scotland - I'm a city person through and through. Ten cities I love: London, Paris, Madrid, Glasgow, Barcelona, San Francisco, Liverpool, Berlin, New York, Sydney.
After leaving Jackie I became Beauty Editor of Just Seventeen, having prepared for the interview by reading The Vogue Body and Beauty Book from cover to cover and mugging up on the merits of cream vs powder blushers. However my interviewer, magazine guru David Hepworth, didn't want to talk about make-up at all.
I am an obsessive collector of cookbooks, both new and vintage, and sometimes take them to bed with me.
I am an only child, as is my dad, so our family is pretty tiny. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of cooking and baking with my paternal grandma, May, who made wonderful mince pies, rice puddings and sponge cakes. Tea at Grandma's would be bread and butter with a cup of tea, followed by cake.
When I was Editor of more! magazine, I dreamed up a perky regular feature called 'Position of the Fortnight.' 'Won't last more than three issues,' my boss said - but it rumbled on for years, with illustrations sometimes being re-used, but the other way up.
I was scared of dogs until - nagged until I literally crumbled - I agreed that we could adopt a rescue dog. Our collie cross, Jack, now sits by me all day as I work. I adore him.
My husband Jimmy and I have three children, almost all grown up now. Our twin sons are away at university and our daughter still lives at home with us in our Glasgow flat. All I really want for them is that they end up doing something they love.
The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane by Ellen Berry is published 14th July (£7.99)