MasterChef presenter Grace Dent gossips at Lilibet's, loves Honey & Co - and plots a draconian reign

I lived in a flat above a builders’ merchant. The hallway was so rotten that I once fell through the floorboards down to my waists

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Home is ...

On the edge of Epping Forest. I'd lived in Leyton for 20 years, and London since 1996, then six months ago I moved here. I'm uprooted: I still haven't got to grips with the house, I'm surrounded by boxes and I don't know where my knickers are. But I spotted a wild boar the other day. I thought it was something they just told tourists.

Where do you stay in London? I don't need to, really, but I've been very lucky and stayed in loads of different fancy hotels.

The most wonderful one was the Connaught. I stayed there in one of those incredible suites with a butler who appears at the beginning and bombards you with questions to make your stay easier: "Can we hang your bra up? Run you a bath?" But I'm a working-class northerner, I just felt so awkward. I must be a huge disappointment to those butlers.

Where was your first flat? My very first home was on Middleton Road in Barnes Green, in a flat above a builders' merchant. The hallway was so rotten that I once fell through the floorboards down to my waist. The landlord offered me a case of beer to say sorry. I thought it was a good deal.

What was your first job? I was on the masthead at Marie Claire as an editorial assistant, which meant I was a glorified janitor and bottle washer. It was a little Devil Wears Prada, but a much larger scoop of Ugly Betty. When that came out, I couldn't watch it - it felt like a documentary.