In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles.

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

No two wars are identical.

I don’t want to be involved in endless media gossip.

It wasn’t glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn’t merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.

When you are covering a life-or-death struggle, as British reporters were in 1940, it is legitimate and right to go along with military censorship, and in fact in situations like that there wouldn’t be any press without the censorship.

I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I’m the reporter.

Hair is also a problem. I remember once, when I was reporting from Beirut at the height of the civil war, someone wrote in to the BBC complaining about my appearance.

I was timid and frightened as a child. Yours truly did not shin up mountains or do any other kind of adventurous stuff.

My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what’s really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles.

I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

I also read modern novels – I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

I was sent to a nice Church of England girls’ school and at that time, after university, a woman was expected to become a teacher, a nurse or a missionary – prior to marriage.

Now children as young as nine carry AK47s which can kill 30 people in seconds.

Beslan, where the Russian authorities stopped live coverage of the school being stormed, was an illustration of the progress we still have to make.

It’s totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection – on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.

People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team – make-up, costume and a driver – but usually, in a war zone, there’s only me and the cameraman.

I wrote in the book very specifically what I wanted to write about, period, and left it at.

I will never retire.

I have never been attracted to any kind of violence.

Up until about 12 years ago we never, ever, wore flak jacket or helmets but now the nastiness has got worse.

I sailed through my childhood with a complete lack of any drama.

I don’t sit there and speculate. I’m not that sort of person. It wastes time, actually.

If I’m in danger then it’s usually my fault and it’s up to me to get myself out of it. I am not in it just to get an adrenalin rush. No way!

I’ve never been one to sit around and eat my heart out. Life’s too short.