Shopping channel presenter, lifestyle author and Banstead resident Debbie Flint, talks about being a film geek and seeing Surrey at its finest at the Abinger Hammer Medieval Fayre

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine April 2017

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If I want to go to the cinema I…

Have no problem going alone and during the daytime (because of the hours I work at QVC). I have a limitless card and have been known to see three films in one day!

The last film I saw was...

LaLa Land – absolutely brilliant. I’m a real film fan, remembering geeky details about them all, and trying to guess the plot. I studied scriptwriting and used to say when I’m a grown up, I will write films and live in LA!

For my theatre fix, I like to...

Catch the best musicals in the West End with my son and daughter as a way of getting ‘mummy time’. They are 30 and 27 and both married or about to be! A meal then a show is my idea of heaven, and I’ve seen most of the big ones over the years. My favourite ever is City of Angels, a lesser known one based on a screenwriter in the1950s and his fictional alter ego. Brilliant songs.

If I get the chance to go to a concert...

I have to be at the front and am more likely to go to Hampton Court Palace Festival than anything else – I’ve seen Tom Jones, Burt Bacharach. I love it. My idea of hell would be being at the back of the O2.

I’m currently reading...

John Grisham’s The Whistler – I’m a voracious ‘reader’ of audiobooks, as I travel long hours and have read/ listened to around 300 books in the past few years that way.

The last time I went to my local library...

Was to see what the new one in Dorking was like. If my kids were still young, I’d be taking them there regularly, just to sit and read. I used to adore the library visits to Morden library as a child. When I was eight, I remember shocking the librarian stamping those old fashioned brown cards, when I took out a book about Tutankhamen and Howard Carter. And I’d read every book in the house. My dad was a school caretaker so we often got to choose others from the school library too. Books are a part of my life.

At home, I’m most likely to be listening to...

Gold radio stations or my LP collection – vinyl is back in dontcha know! I listen to Kate Bush most on vinyl as I’m a lifelong fan. Whereas in the car, I generally listen to audiobooks.

The TV programme I never miss is...

Mr Selfridge. There’s also Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife. The new book I’m writing is a fictionalised account of real life events a hundred years ago, and has been described as a cross between all three.

My favourite cultural event in Surrey is...

Abinger Hammer Medieval Fayre! I love the atmosphere, the effort everyone puts into this annual event and the sights and sounds with an olde worlde flair. It is definitely Surrey at its finest.

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Debbie’s latest book, Till the Fat Lady Slims, is available in paperback now from all good book shops and online retailers and is available in ebook format across all platforms. For more info on Debbie, visit debbieflint.com or follow her on Twitter: @debbieflint.