Date: 13 June 2006
Originally published in: The Independent (UK)
Written by: Elisa Bray
The 5-Minute Interview: Kim Wilde, Gardener and singer. Pop star turned gardener Kim Wilde, 45, will be presented tomorrow with a gold award from the Association of Colleges charitable trust, for her return to education and new career. For more information, go to www.aoc.co.uk.
The gold award means…
Recognition for the college I attended. I’m proud to be associated with Capel Manor College. It’s my way of saying thank you to them. I’m also a bit of a sucker for a gold award.
If I wasn’t talking to you right now I’d be…
Calling my husband. He’s in Leeds at the moment appearing in Bad Girls: The Musical.
A phrase I use far too often is…
The one I throw at my kids when I get desperate: “We’ll have to see what your father thinks about that.”
I wish people would take more notice of…
How lucky they are. How privileged they are on the whole in this country, especially compared to people in other lands.
The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was…
Becoming a born-again gardener. When I got married I started to make my own garden. I got into gardening television, and have subsequently done Chelsea, written two books and most of all, I got the garden I wanted my children to grow up in. I thought it would be a fad that I’d grow out of. The surprise was its longevity and how important it became to me.
I’m not a politician but…
I would spearhead an overhaul of how we recycle in this country. It’s terribly lazy and the consumer is hardly helped to do it effectively.
You know me as a pop star and gardener, but in a truer life I’d have been…
Definitely a mother, perhaps on a farm making my own goats’ cheese.
