What small ritual helps set the tone for your day? 
A cup of tea. Every single morning, without fail. Yorkshire Tea, normal milk, no sugar -  builder’s tea. I would love to say I have a particularly beautiful cup that makes it into a morning ritual, but this morning I drank it out of my husband’s Liverpool FC mug. I love a nice mug - but I also love a good cuppa.

How does your routine change when you are travelling? 
It completely goes out of the window! I would love to be one of those people who travels with a beautifully organised routine, but I’m absolutely not. I put all my vitamins and everything I need to take into a very organised little pill box - and then completely forget to take them. I forget to wash my face. Everything goes to pot. I’m trying to get better, but I think I’ve accepted that I’m just not a routine person when I travel.

Do you plan your days carefully, or leave room for them to unfold? 
A bit of both. If I’m going somewhere, I want to know what’s happening - where the market is, which restaurants are open, whether there’s a brilliant pop up, exhibition or gallery I should know about. I like having a few anchors peppered through the day, maybe lunch somewhere I really want to try or a gallery I want to see, but I hate having every hour accounted for.

Some of the best bits of travelling happen when you have absolutely nowhere you need to be. I love leaving enough time to amble, look in shops, stop for a coffee, change direction and actually notice where I am. There’s so little room for that kind of aimlessness in normal life. My favourite things are making new friends and being invited to a dinner or a random party - I love those spontaneous nights!

What brings you back to Edinburgh?
I love Edinburgh. There’s something about the energy of the city that feels incredibly warm and familiar to me. The Scots are so hospitable and funny, and in some ways it reminds me of being up north around Leeds, where my mum and stepdad live.

Then there’s the architecture, the cobbled streets, the independent shops and this incredible food scene. I love cities where you can eat brilliantly without everything feeling overly polished or serious, and Edinburgh has so much of that. There always seems to be something new to discover.

What does Edinburgh give you that you don’t find anywhere else? 
I think Edinburgh has this amazing tension between being a proper, culturally rich city and feeling incredibly close to the wildness of Scotland.

Scotland feels like one of the last places in the UK where nature can still feel genuinely vast. You have the Highlands, the islands, the Hebrides, the sea, incredible produce, seafood, mountains,  and somehow you can still feel a little bit of that when you’re standing in the middle of Edinburgh.

It has history and grandeur, but it’s also incredibly down to earth. You can eat somewhere brilliant, walk down a beautiful Georgian street and then suddenly see the landscape opening up around you. I love that combination. It feels cultured without feeling removed from the land around it.

Which part of the city feels most instinctively like your Edinburgh?
I don’t know Edinburgh well enough to claim a particular neighbourhood as “mine”, but I really love the area around Lannan Bakery and Stockbridge. It has exactly the things I’m always drawn to in a city - brilliant independent food, beautiful streets, little shops, charity shops and places you can rummage around without really knowing what you’re looking for.

That feels much more instinctive to me than following a list of landmarks.

When you have an hour completely free in the city, where do you go and what do you do?
Straight to the charity shops for a rummage. I love going somewhere without knowing what I’m going to find.

Last time I was in Edinburgh I found this beautiful plate and a little navy striped dress with a red frill for my daughter, which she still absolutely loves. Those are my favourite souvenirs because they’re completely specific to that moment. You couldn’t have planned to find them.

What is something about Edinburgh that visitors overlook but you always notice?
The independent businesses. I think it’s very easy to visit Edinburgh and be swept up in the architecture and history, understandably - but I always notice the smaller ecosystem underneath it - the bakeries, restaurants, food shops, charity shops and independent book stores.

Those places tell you so much about how a city actually lives. I’m always much more interested in finding out where someone buys their bread than ticking off ten tourist attractions.

What makes a place somewhere you want to return to rather than simply visit once?
Pockets left to explore. I never want to feel like I’ve “done” a city. For me, the best places have a vitality to them, somewhere I know I can come back and have a brilliant meal, but where there’s also a new exhibition, restaurant, shop or person doing something interesting that gives me another reason to return.

I think the sweet spot is somewhere that feels familiar enough to be comforting but still has that spark of discovery. Edinburgh has that.

What never leaves your bag? 
My computer. I take it absolutely everywhere. I love knowing I can sit down wherever I am, open it and work if an idea comes to me.

What do the objects inside your bag reveal about how you live? 
That I am extremely messy! My bag is basically a travelling version of my brain.
There are papers, pens, a pencil case, Post-its, tape, my wallet, receipts, notebooks - everything. I’d love to be one of those people who opens their bag and there are four perfectly selected objects inside, but unfortunately I am not that woman.

What changes inside your bag from morning to evening? 
Honestly, not much - I tend to carry a big bag of everything around with me all day. I’m a creature-of-comfort person. Not necessarily in the sense that I always want to be at home, because I love being out and travelling, but I like having a little bit of home with me. So my bag will have sunglasses, a pencil case, notebooks, my computer, probably something belonging to one of my children and about seventeen things I absolutely do not need. - but cannot be without.

What makes a bag earn a place in your everyday wardrobe?
It has to be beautiful, but it really has to work. I need to be able to carry my computer, a notebook and a water bottle. It can’t be ridiculously heavy before I’ve even put anything in it, and it needs to be durable because I genuinely use my bags.

For an everyday bag, I think simplicity is best. I love beautiful leather that gets better rather than worse with age. For me, that’s where sustainability really comes into play - I want to own fewer things that are made beautifully, wear well and can stay in my wardrobe for years. I have just started commuting and I am looking for a PERFECT travel bag - ones that BIG, has space for a water bottle, a pair of shoes, is comfortable on the shoulder strap - but doesn’t look like a suitcase - or a puffa jacket - know anyone who can make this for me - wink wink.


Do you choose the bag first and build the look around it, or does the outfit come first?
I have such a swinging-pendulum brain that there probably isn’t one answer!
If I’m going somewhere in the evening, sometimes I’ll start with a bag I really want to wear and build around it. For work, the outfit and bag tend to come together because practicality has to enter the equation, I need my laptop and notebook with me, but I still want everything to feel considered.

I’m quite instinctive about getting dressed. I don’t really have a formula; I like the slightly unexpected combinations that happen when you don’t overthink it. I am also either super organised about my outfits or look like I am putting out the bins…

What allows one bag to work naturally across morning meetings and evening?
For me, it’s simplicity and proportion. I need something big enough for my computer and notebook during the day, but refined enough that I don’t feel like I’m carrying a work bag if I go straight out afterwards.

A beautiful leather bag with a really simple silhouette does that brilliantly. It can work with jeans and a jumper at 9am and still look great with a dress or a pair of heels at 7pm. That versatility is what makes something genuinely useful to me.

When you travel, what earns a place in your bag and what gets left behind?
Not very much gets left behind, unfortunately! I’m a creature of comfort and a chronic over-packer in my day-to-day bag. My bag is very Type B. However with a travel suitcase I can be very disciplined!

I always have my ROCCO Happy Eyes patches with me when I travel because tired eyes and dark circles are pretty much inevitable when I’m running around or getting off a plane. Then it’s my computer, notebook, pencil case, sunglasses and all the other bits and pieces I’ve convinced myself I might need.

I admire people who travel incredibly lightly. I’d love to meet her and ask her for some tips…