'I ARRANGE THE BOOKSHOP SHELVES SO MINE ARE IN FRONT'

CAROL KIRKWOOD ON 25 YEARS AS THE FACE OF BBC WEATHER, HER SIDE CAREER AS A BEST-SELLING NOVELIST AND HER PLANS FOR AN INTIMATE SECOND WEDDING

-  MITYA UNDERWOOD

She’s been a constant, joyous presence on breakfast television for a quarter of a century. But in some ways, life for Carol Kirkwood is only just getting started. Now 61, she is enjoying pre-wedded bliss with her police officer fiancé Steve Randall and has just released her third novel, Secrets Of The Villa Amore.

When we speak to Carol on a Monday afternoon, she has been up and about for more than 12 hours (but you would never know it, given the infectious energy that she seems to bring to everything she does) and is arriving back at her Berkshire home after a morning’s shift presenting the weather on BBC’s Breakfast.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Not only has she travelled to and from London to report the weather from Wimbledon, but she has been doing the rounds to publicise her latest book, in the hopes of notching up a third bestseller.

Given her 3am daily wake-up calls, where does she find the energy, let alone the time, to write a book?

“You know that expression, ‘If you want a job done, give it to a busy person,’” she laughs. “If you have to do something, you’ll do it. I work to deadlines all the time, my day is a collapsing time frame.

“From the minute I get up to the minute I finish on television, I have a deadline every 15 minutes, so I’m used to working under pressure. But writing a book is exciting, it’s not a chore.”

Carol has no intention of letting her fast-paced lifestyle ease off any time soon. In fact, as we’re chatting, she lets slip that she has just handed over the manuscript to the fourth book she has been writing – before the third has even hit the shelves.