“I write in the garden room, on my terrace at home in Covent Garden.” — David Essex Quote

I write in the garden room, on my terrace at home in Covent Garden.

I was always quite shy so I became a drummer.

For me the 60s was important because I was a teenager then and the bands then were the influences.

My mum loved dancing and played the piano and was gregarious. There were Gypsies on her side of the family. Her dad was from Cork and sometimes in summer I'd go there with my mum to meet up with that side of the family and pick fruit and hops.

My first concert tour was extraordinary - I couldn't hear what was going on and no one else could hear what was going on, because there was so much screaming. Once a fan jumped from the royal box. It all took me by surprise.

I have a little garden, and I quite enjoy fiddling about in it.

I have been growing vegetables since I was a boy. When I was about 17 I was the only one of five children living at home. My parents were ill and I took over the vegetable garden and I have had one ever since.

I remember, around age three, peas growing in the back garden. Pinching them from their pods and popping them in the mouth was my first realisation that food came from somewhere other than a shelf.

When I was 8 years old, I sold garden seeds.

When I'm in my 50s, I kind of think I'll want to be in a garden.