QUICKFIRE Simon Reeve on dark times strange souvenirs and women in charge - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Celebrity QUICKFIRE Simon Reeve on dark times strange souvenirs and women in charge By You Magazine - September 23, 2018 TV globetrotter Simon Reeve opens up about his biggest bugbear, dream dinner party guests and advice to his teenage self. Guilty pleasure? You’ve Been Framed. I watch it with my son Jake [seven]. Where is home? A converted barn in the wilds of Dartmoor, Devon. Who would play you in a movie of your life? Steven Seagal – I think it would be very funny. Biggest bugbear? Toilet seats that won’t stay up. As a child you wanted to be… A van driver. I went for a couple of dozen driving jobs after I left school, but never got any of them. Earliest memory? Having a lumbar puncture when I was four and had meningitis. The pain was horrific. Secret to a happy relationship? Learning to compromise. Your best quality? Empathy. And your worst? Rage, sarcasm, ego – I’m not sure where to begin! Most romantic thing you’ve ever done? Fill a room with gifts and candles for my wife, Anya, quite early on in our relationship. Last meal on earth? A full English breakfast. Dream dinner-party guests? My friends, who I don’t see often enough. Advice to teenage self? Stop worrying. As a teenager, I got so low that I came close to ending it all. Cat or dog? We have an Alsatian collie cross, Obi, a cat called Cookie and we feed a wild cat named Barney. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Someone youngish who feels a bit old and ravaged inside. Starstruck moment? Meeting Keith Richards before a Rolling Stones gig. Favourite tipple? Prosecco and Guinness, but not together. Hangover cure? A pint of water before bed. Top of your bucket list? To repeat my travels with my family. I am desperate to show Jake this wondrous world. Secret skill? I am able to juggle carving knives. One thing that would make your life better? Training Obi to retrieve would be transformational. Philosophy? Take everything step by step. This got me through a dark place. Biggest lesson you have learnt about money? I’m hopeless with it. Biggest lesson you have learnt about women? If they ran things in certain tricky parts of the world, there would be less fighting and corruption. First record you bought? ‘Breakin’…There’s No Stopping Us’ by Ollie & Jerry. Most extravagant purchase? A ghetto blaster that cost me £120 when I was 14. Best present you ever received? Our guide in Dagestan, southern Russia, gave me a big slab of stone with a laminated picture of his village on it and some stinky dried fish before waving us off at the airport. Biggest fear? Letting my son down. Celebrity crush? Eva Green. Happiness is… Finding meaning in life – it has been a real focus for me. Simon’s memoir, Step by Step, is published by Hodder & Stoughton, price £20. To order a copy for £16.99 (A 20 percent discount until 7 October, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 08445710640; P&P is free on orders over £15 His UK theatre tour, An Audience with Simon Reeve, continues in Liverpool. For more information, visit simonreeve.co.uk Interview by John Koski RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR 50 of the best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time Shirley Ballas ‘ Strictly gave me back my hope’ Davina McCall discusses how men can help women going through the menopause Popular in Celebrity TV chef Gino D Acampo on Sardinia Sophia Loren and scary salads May 25, 2017 The Evergreen Goddess Exercise guru Diana Moran on looking fit and July 10, 2017 More more Julianne Moore November 13, 2017 Author Jill Mansell on designer notebooks commissioning art and the family January 16, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES Kelly Hoppen on vodka vintage finds and being a April 4, 2018 ‘ I have no regrets’ Millie Mackintosh on divorce debt and reuniting May 20, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES TV presenter and tennis player Annabel Croft shares her July 1, 2018 Stella Parton ‘ Dolly and I have always been close’ August 12, 2018 Anna Friel on getting jeered in the street shared parenting with September 23, 2018 Queen of primetime Charlotte Riley on juggling rising stardom with pregnancy October 21, 2018 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved