Our final guest on this series of MLISC began her life as an occasional, very tiny guest on Blue Peter. Smart, beautiful and cool, she became a successful pop singer with a string of hits. She’s been a Strictly finalist and one of the Masked Singers. She’s the mother of five gorgeous boys. She danced into all of our homes with her Kitchen Disco during Lockdown and turned it into a best selling album. She’s currently brimfull of new projects, with a successful podcast and her first book coming out this Ocotber. I’m delighted to welcome Sophie Ellis Bextor to My Life in Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/3LXc69c

Stylist, editor and creative director, my guest today on My Life In Seven Charms is also known as the Queen of Thrift. A trailblazer who combined second-hand shop finds with couture for luxury shoots, she brought thrift into the mainstream. Her recent pop-up Oxfam store at Selfridges, fronted by Michaela Cole, was a sell-out. Her emphasis on the joy of thrifting has reached new audiences as fashion begins to think more about sustainability. She’s also a talented photographer who has shot covers and editorial for magazines all over the world, she has that most elusive of qualities –a  brilliant eye. I’m delighted to welcome Bay Garnett to My Life In Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/3561Tqy

Known to fashionistas as the much-loved Mrs B, my next guest on the podcast is the original curator, the first and foremost fashion retailer with her multi-brand emporium Browns. A persuader, who was able to entice luxe brands to London, and a nurturer who scooped up entire collections from Central St Martin’s graduate shows, her career has spanned over fifty years in fashion. The first woman to wear trousers in Claridges, her style and her instinctive eye have made her an icon. I’m delighted to welcome Joan Burstein to My Life In Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/3BMjTCd

Writer, historian, educator, and someone who shone a light for millions of people around the world onto the recent history of China, Jung Chang wrote Wild Swans, one of the most influential multi-generational biographies of our time. She has also written meticulously researched books on Chinese leaders such as Chairman Mao and the Dowager Empress Cixi. Born fourteen years before the Cultural Revolution began, Jung Chang was swept up by that particular tide of history.

Briefly a member of the Red Guard, and then a so-called barefoot doctor, electrician and steelworker, she watched her parents being repeatedly denounced and her father’s heath utterly broken by his treatment. When the universities re-opened in 1973, she was galvanised to begin studying, and she came to the UK on a Chinese government scholarship as a postgraduate student. She was the first Chinese person to gain a Phd in the UK. A visit here from her mother began the train of events which resulted in Wild Swans and then her life changed for ever. It became the highest-selling non-fiction paperback book ever published. I’m delighted to welcome Jung Chang to My Life in Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/3BVSHBa

Creating the spaces that people call home takes style, flair and emotional insight. They are qualities that my guest this week on My Life in Seven Charms has in spades. Her ascent has been remarkable. Founding her own agency aged only 24, she has quickly gained a reputation for warm, uplifting, gorgeous rooms which are filled with beautiful art. Eclectic and strong on sustainability, she draws on a boho upbringing which weaves together South Africa, Devon, New York and now London. Her Instagram following is made up of chic, savvy, interiors-obsessed millennials who love her ‘how-to’ advice. Already a trail-blazer, I’m delighted to welcome Sophie Ashby to My Life in Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/35me2HC 

A International Women's Day Special - Being an Olympic gold medalist in one discipline takes talent, courage and resilience. Being an Olympic gold medalist in an event that requires brilliance in seven of them is utterly awe-inspiring. My guest this week found athletics when she was eight, and she was instantly smitten. Displaying extraordinary commitment and determination from the word go, striking gold with a historic win at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, an OBE, an ambassador for many charities, a cheerleader for girls' participation in sport. She is also a mother of four children. I'm so thrilled to welcome the amazing Denise Lewis OBE to My Life In Seven Charms.

https://bit.ly/3BLxz0m 

A must-listen for any budding entrepreneur or dynamic creative, this week’s episode is with Holly Tucker. A trailblazer, an entrepreneur and a cheerleader for hundreds of small businesses, she founded Not On The High Street and in more recent years, Holly & Co. However, like many people, Holly's path to her passion has had some major obstacles, which true to her effervescent spirit, she has overcome with determination and grace. She has, as the poem says, met with triumph and disaster and treated them the same. Ahead of her time in the opportunity she spotted, she had the guts to persevere in the face of the mostly-men who said no and went on to make the British high street a virtual one.

https://bit.ly/3sjdzz8

Rachel Johnson is undoubtedly a high achiever, having navigated a career as a novelist, journalist, editor and now broadcaster on prime time radio and yet as many women of talent have often been, is all too often categorised primarily as the sister or daughter of a prominent man. A member of one of the most well-known political families of our time, in this chat Rachel, explores childhood memories on the family farm in Exmoor, her deep connection and admiration for her parents and how she manages her place among 3, independent-from-the-word-go, brothers.

https://bit.ly/3vgxIYw

The doyenne of decadence, Lucia van der Post is the pre-digital influencer having crafted a career as a tastemaker and a curator of beautiful things, most notably in her role which spans some decades, at The Financial Times How To Spend It Magazine, which she was fundamental to launching in the mid-1980s. In this, at times emotional chat with Annoushka, Lucia shares tales of early years in her native South Africa, where she spent her formative years during apartheid and talks openly about her late, great philosopher, explorer and conservationist father Laurens van der Post.

https://bit.ly/35u3kiw

Interior and Textile designer Kit Kemp is best known for shaping the boutique hotel industry known and loved today. Renowned for her stylish and witty aesthetic, immortalised through three critically-acclaimed books, here she shares childhood memories and tales of young love with Annoushka in a relaxed chat at The Hamyard Hotel.

https://bit.ly/3LWKr8y