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I am fascinated by history and particularly the Victorian era.

At heart, this job is about continuing to make great theatre for the people of Sheffield - a city I've known and loved since childhood.

I did art history and English literature at Newcastle.

I love my home, spend as much time in London as I can, and try wherever possible to avoid travelling for work. Sometimes I think I'm really badly equipped to be an actress.

My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria.

I love the Victorian era, and I always have, but I had a leg up on the writing because I was familiar with a lot of the science from the Victorian era. And that led to a massive interest in the science of this time of history.

I've admired historical clothes like Victorian gowns since I was a child, and it's what motivated me to go into fashion.

To have a childhood surrounded by people like Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh sounds glitzy, but for years I wanted to repress it. I couldn't take that kind of power and success.

When I left the Royal College, I decided I would only make paintings that I would want to look at myself, that felt close to my life.

I used to have a list of things from my school buddies of what kind of art material they wanted. I'd go up to the West End of London and spend the whole day knocking stuff off.