I'm 96% Viking!

Presenter and author Sandi Toksvig on helping the environment, exploring her heritage and her unlikely reading habits

- TIM OGLETHORPE

If you are still looking for that thoughtful last-minute Christmas present for someone you really love, then Sandi Toksvig has an idea.

Buy them something that will improve the environment, whether it’s signing them up for a wildlife charity, giving them some flower seeds to sow, buying a tree they can plant – or adopting an animal on their behalf.

‘Do your bit, please, do something for the natural world and the environment,’ says Sandi. ‘I swear it will make you feel better and happier!’

Sandi’s own contribution to helping the natural world is the rewilding of 40 acres of ancient woodland in the countryside in southern England. ‘We've completed 15 acres in the last three years and our dream is to restore it all,’ says the former host of The Great British Bake Off, who hopes to work on the project with her wife Debbie over the festive period.

‘It’s wonderful to see the way it benefits the environment; butterflies and dragonflies have increased and so too has biodiversity, by between 30 and 40%.’

If the effects of all that hard work are evident above ground level, Sandi has spent much of 2025 putting in the hours below it too.

She’s been hosting the More4 series Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders, which is available to stream on Channel 4. It is a fascinating examination of key archaeological digs across the UK.