Name: Kirsten Whiting
Company: Arts & Business
Job title: Regional Manager
What did you want to be when you were young? A socialist revolutionary.
What was your first full time job? Administrative Officer at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
What is your best quality? Keeping calm in the face of chaos.
What is your worst quality? Saying to my friends, “I’ll give you a call” and then not calling.
What is your favourite book? Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
What is your favourite film? Pulp Fiction.
What is your favourite restaurant? I’m quite taken with Ratho in Falmouth at the moment although I’m afraid nothing will ever beat Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea.
How do you like to relax? With a good book (in love with Cornwall author Patrick Gale’s novels at the moment) or a long walk.
If you could build a house anywhere in the world where would it be? Next door to Wheal Coates mine. I’d have to build it into the cliff so it wouldn’t spoil the landscape!
If you could be a superhero, what superpowers would you like to possess? The ability to make time slow down. And I’d like a really sparkly superhero cape, too.
Who was your teenage pin up? Prince.
Can money buy happiness? I’ve never been in a position to test this theory! But I’ve seen rich people cry so my guess is not always.
What do you begrudge spending money on? Fuel tax. Like most people in Cornwall and other rural regions, I have no choice but to get in the car.
Most annoying TV personality? There are so many! I won’t miss Jonathan Ross.
What has been the best moment in your career? I hope I haven’t had it yet.
What has been the worst moment in your career? Not being able to get hold of my boss who was in New York on 11th September 2001.
If you only had £1 left in the entire world, what would you spend it on? A Rowes pasty (small!).
What was your luckiest break? Replying to a tiny little job advert and ending up working for Michael Palin.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in life? Don’t save anything for best.
When is honesty not always the best policy? When telling your husband the cost of your new shoes.
What makes you happy? Getting a question right on University Challenge.
What makes you angry? Unnecessary rudeness. Manners don’t cost anything!
If you could invite any two people for dinner, who would they be and why would you invite them? Audrey Hepburn, in the hope that she could imbue me with a little of her grace and style, and John Peel to provide the music.
What could you not live without? A radio.
Tell me a joke. What do you call a fairy who hasn’t had a bath? Stinkerbell (courtesy of my 4 year old son!).
What’s your favourite holiday destination? Trevedra Farm campsite, at Gwenver.
What’s your #1 ambition? To be the best mum I can be.
Describe yourself in three adjectives. Dedicated, inquisitive, mischievous.
