Fiona Bell is the founder of Their Nibs clothing brand which specialises in night wear.

I first came across Fiona’s shop when pushing my eldest son around Ladbroke Grove in his buggy in the mid naughties. And I still think she makes the loveliest pyjamas in the land!

Fiona has a 25 year old son Finn and an adoptive daughter Maggie who is 11.

We talked about the close link Fiona still keeps with the adoption agency Coram, which made her and her husband Charlie’s adoption of Maggie possible. It has been an emotional journey but so worth it, she says. And her advice to anyone planning to adopt is: 'as an adoptive parent you've got to be selfless because you've got to accept you might not get very much back, but if you work at that, you definitely do'.

Maggie has obviously brought so much joy to the whole family. Listen to the interview to hear why I think Fiona’s next PJ print should be rainbows and ginger cats.

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lavina Mehta MBE is a health campaigner, a personal trainer, and an author. She came to my notice during Covid when she started doing weekly exercises on YouTube with her mother-in-law.

She’s just published her book The Feel Good Fix which is designed to improve your health during menopause, and presents her idea of exercise snacking - incorporating short bursts of activity into your normal day rather than maybe going to the gym for an hour.

We talked about her religion of Jainism which is about non-harm, karma and non-violence and how she still presents an exercise class online with her mum-in-law every Friday now.

When we finished our sit-down interview, Lavina encouraged me to do some wall press-ups, and left me with her slogan ringing in my ears: ‘Sanity, not vanity!’

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lara Maiklem is an author and a mudlark. She told me there’s nothing she likes more than kneeling on the banks of the River Thames for 5-6 hours at a time, scanning the mud for tiny treasures which are twice daily being given up by the tide!

Lara shares her fascinating finds on Instagram, where I've been following her for a while. Her favourite finds include a Tudor shoe, part of a Roman sword and some tiny gold beads from a necklace which she thinks must have broken as someone was boarding a boat on the river hundreds of years ago.

Lara told me how mudlarking gave her peace and alone time when she moved to London, and how, when their twins were small, her wife used to send her off to mudlark, knowing she’d come back ‘a nicer person’!

Living near the Thames myself, I think I might try mudlarking too, as I’m still hopeful of finding Mickey’s PJ Masks watch that he threw in the river near Richmond a while back!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.