Diana Quick grew up in Dartford and is best known for the role of Lady Julia Flyte in the television production of Brideshead Revisited, for which she received an Emmy. Her diverse stage career has ranged from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida to Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. She is currently starring in The American Plan, which runs at the St James Theatre till Aug 10.
When were you happiest?
I am always happy when loafing at the ladies’ pond on Hampstead Heath – it’s such a boon and a privilege to have this resource virtually on our doorstep.
Where would you like to live?
Off Milfield Lane, looking out on the Heath – but I am happy where I do live. I love it that the community in Kentish Town is so mixed, with a real “village” feel, and that at the same time you can get in to the centre of town so easily.
What is your favourite sound?
The children playing in the playground of a school near my house.
What is your greatest life achievement?
Learning to let those I care about be who they are, without trying to make them over as I would like them to be.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
That life is to be lived day by day. There is only the present.
What is your earliest Kentish Town memory?
Coming up to visit a secret lover in the early 1980s. It felt like travelling to a foreign land.
What makes you unhappy?
Gratuitous rudeness. Of which there is far too much.
Not to have to deal with a subsidence issue at my house. The worst thing about Kentish Town is that so much of it is built on clay, and the extreme weather from rain to heatwave plays havoc with many of the borough’s older houses, built quickly in the Victorian boom years on foundations too shallow by modern standards. And it’s not necessarily a simple thing to fix.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Coffee and cake at Kalendar cafe.
Where do you hang out?
On the Heath, at Kentish Canteen, and in the shops on Brecknock road.
Who or what do you hate and why?
The celebrity culture which assumes every bit of one’s life is up for public scrutiny (see 15 below!)
What have been your best and worst experiences locally?
Best is sitting in my garden with the birds singing. I could be in deep country.
The worst was being marooned on a 29 bus on the Camden Road late one night coming back from work in the West End, while the police searched and arrested about 15 youths who had just murdered a boy in a turf war about cash dispensers. I could hardly get home, I was suddenly so frightened, in the area I have always thought of as a safe haven, as home.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My fallen arches – flat feet!
What’s the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
Lynn Barber, who was once a friend, reviewed my memoir of my father’s family in India, A Tug on the Thread, and said the only thing that was interesting about me were the men who had been my partners – a subject which is strictly off limits as far as I am concerned. There has to be some kind of boundary between private and public life.
Tell us a secret.
Salvino’s on Brecknock Road is the best Italian food shop in town: homemade dishes on Saturdays, wonderful coffee, eggs from chickens fed on marigolds and acorns, charming hosts in the Salvino brothers Steve and Tony, and Tonio, the deli counter assistant who will serenade you as he cuts your salami and makes a delicious sandwich.
That I am lucky to be employed in a job I love.
What is your favourite dish and why?
I love food so it is hard to choose one, but a fresh salad. I’m good at putting one together, often with stuff from Bumblebee or Earth wholefood stores, mixed with things I grow myself, at this time of year radishes and rocket. This weekend I poached a whole organic salmon from Harry’s Fine Foods and served it with a sorrel sauce made from my own sorrel.
What did you do today?
Swam at the ladies’ pond; walked my dog in Caledonian Park; called the AA to fix a flat battery after stupidly leaving my indicator flashing all night; replanted my window box with pretty things; read in the garden; and I will leave at 5pm to do the show at St James Theatre.
Describe yourself as an animal.
Probably a cat. Good at relaxing, but likes to prowl around the manor.
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