Article from The Times newspaper from September 2004.
AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT - LIFETIME
By Liz Gill
My greatest fear is dying before my children are grown-up. We have three sons aged 18, 16 and 13 and I'd like to see them totally independent.
I no longer worry about saying the right thing. Working-class Scot is not the most confident of backgrounds. I'm much more spontaneous now, and confident in the way that older people often are.
When I'm annoyed I make a real fuss. When I was growing up in Dunfermline you didn't talk about feelings and showing them was thought common. But I've no compunction about it now.
I cope with disappointment by crying my eyes out. I've never actually been very disappointed in my career because I was never ambitious for things such as success in America. And I'm basically happy. At 56 I still have a career, I have a husband I've been married to for 20 years and three kids.
I don't have a favourite book. I'm not a woman of letters, I prefer visual art. I find looking at anything by Antony Gormley a profound experience. It makes me want to burst into tears.
I don't hate anyone. If you are filled with hate, you are the one who will suffer.
The person I admire most is my husband, Oliver Cookson, who makes TV drama. I didn't think such a thing as a nice, sexy, interesting man existed. He made me believe that they did. He is also a wonderful companion and a good father.
When I put my feet up I do needlepoint. I am rather puritanical so I don't put my feet up a lot, but in the evening I do needlepoint and half watch television.
From my parents I learnt conflicting signals. My father was a funny but quiet Scot and my mother was an outgoing Scouser, so there was big confusion. My dad would say: "Don't stick your head over the parapet, keep yourself to yourself", and my mum would say: "If you've got it, flaunt it."
The worst thing about family life is the terrible gaps caused by sending the children to boarding school -mine go to Ampleforth. The eldest, who's dyslexic, flourished there and has been very happy, so I make my life a misery by sending the other two there as well.
I would like to be remembered publicly for being a fine intrepreter of songs and I'd like my grandchildren, if I have them, to think I was good fun.
I regret the outfit I wore to get my OBE. It was a creamy, musliny dress and coat by Nichole Farhi, whom I normally love, but it was completely the wrong thing.
If I could change one law I'd abolish inheritance tax. To pay tax all your life and then have to pay it when you die is wicked. We should be able to pass on what we have.
Am I afraid of death? I say no, bravely, but if I'm having a nightmare it is often in there, so perhaps I am. I may be more afraid of the path to it, if there is pain and fear. The unfinished business I have is that I'd like to live in the sun.
There is some Jewish blood on my mother's side and I must still have a bit of Middle-Eastern DNA in me that longs for warmth.
The traits I consider most important are calm and tranquillity, because I don't have any. When I encounter them, especially in someone's speaking voice, it makes my scalp tingle.
My favourite song is Jerusalem, especially sung by boys' voices. I had it at my wedding.
I get upset about lots of things in modern life: the way people scream at their kids, the lack of civility and respect and coarse, vulgar, tasteless TV programmes.
My one piece of advice is to parents who are pushing their kids into showbiz: let them finish their education and then decide.
Full Circle, Barbara Dickson's new album, is released on September 13 by RandM records.
