When I go back to Essex, where I grew up, I'm still appalled by the homophobia and casual racism and aggression. I live in Lewisham, in south London, and though it might look a bit rough, it's a diverse, friendly neighbourhood.
I'd love to be able to sing. I make videos in my car when I'm driving back and forward between Manchester and Essex, and I try my hardest to sing well but it just doesn't work out.
I think I come back to Essex and fit in pretty well but until you get there you don't know.
I think Essex Man will vote for a Conservative Government.
I absolutely love 'TOWIE.'
I think there's always interest in how the other half live - I see myself as a down-to-earth Essex mum who just happens to be living this very glamorous life in Beverly Hills.
We Brits print banknotes out in Debden in Essex, and have contracted it out to the private sector. Here in the U.S. it is a government operation right in the heart of Washington next door to the Holocaust Museum.
The one I remember is going into London, as it was for us in Essex, on New Year's Eve in 1981. There were four of us and we'd had a few lagers on the way. One of my mates threw up in the Tube and then stood up and fell over in it. We thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen.
I resent almost all of the time I spend in front of the television, but I find 'The Only Way Is Essex' absolutely riveting.
The one thing about Essex is that there's a lot of people there that are into their soul music. And I'm talking '80s and '70s soul music, that was a big part of my childhood, there was Al Green, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, people like that.
The whole acting game can sometimes be a bit false, and you meet a lot of people in it for the fame - so there's nothing I love more than going back to Essex.
I don't understand 'The Only Way Is Essex' and 'Made in Chelsea': the way they pretend there's no camera. I cannot fathom the attraction.
Suburbia is all about private ownership and not having to share, and it leads to a paranoid, defensive mindset. I know this, having grown up in Essex.
I remember my first meeting with Alastair Cook clearly. The entire Lancashire side, some of them pretty mild-mannered, really laid into him. He'd just scored a double-hundred for Essex against Australia in a warm-up match before the 2005 Ashes. For some reason, we all assumed he must be really arrogant.
Some people write me off as a bit of a hick from an Essex council estate. I realize that. But I can read.
