Fearless, Fabulous - Fern

The novelist and TV presenter talks self-care, speaking her mind more as she gets older, and her love of the community she now feels part of in Cornwall

- By Gemma Calvert. Photographs by Nicky Johnston

Since the end of her second marriage, Fern Britton's home has been a sleepy Cornish village near Padstow. But when we catch up with the TV presenter and author on a four-day trip to London, she's relishing reacquainting herself with city life.

'I went to the theatre last night to see Cabaret with Eddie Redmayne, who was stunning. Tonight I'm out with a girlfriend for dinner, then tomorrow I'm meeting four girls I go cycling with,' smiles Fern, 64, suddenly looking playful. 'If you hear someone's stripped naked down Tottenham Court Road, that'll be me!'

She's alluding to two stories divulged in the hair and make-up chair. Firstly, the time she went nude sea swimming in broad daylight ('It was a quiet little cove - then I saw some people on the cliff and thought, oh, b****r!'). Then there's her partiality to a spontaneous cocktail.

'At a social occasion, when someone says Let's have margaritas, I'm the one [who says] Oh, yeah, f*** it,' she laughs, describing a night out in 2019 on tour with Calendar Girls the Musical. 'It was 4am and I was in a bar drinking а margaritas, having a lovely time. The next day I was in a dreadful state!'

Full of opinions and refreshingly frank, Fern - who co-presented ITV's This Morning for a decade until 2009 - is enormous fun to be around. She's also brimming with excitement about what the rest of the year has in store. As well as the release of her latest novel, The Good Servant - this is her 10th (she's contracted to pen three more) - Fern has been presenting Channel 5's revival of the popular amateur painting competition Watercolour Challenge, following a Christmas TV appearance on ITV's All Star Musicals.