Each week we shine the spotlight on a member of Dorset’s business community and ask him, or her, for answers to our part fun/part serious questionnaire. This time…

She looks for humour, intelligence and the ability to spell in a new employee; gets angry at unfairness, unkindness and being patronised; considers hypos – sorry that should be typos – to be the worst part of her job and says ‘what kind of psychopath chooses melon over sponge pudding?’.

Laura Hitchcock, Co-Founder & Editor, The Blackmore Vale, takes the 20 Questions’ hot seat. 

Question: What is your favourite TV show?

Answer: I’m more of a book or a movie girl, and don’t actually watch much TV. Gilmore Girls is my go-to permanent comfort-watch, and the show I’ve committed most hours too.

Q: Who would you like to share a car with?

A: I’d pop Dame Judi Dench and Peter Ustinov in the back. I’ll drive, and just listen while they talk and talk. Oh, and I’ll have Robin Williams up front. And now I feel shallow, because actually the one person I’d love to share it with would be my Granny. She died when I was a young teen, and only as an adult have I started to learn what a remarkable woman she was. I’d like to properly talk to her, and get to know Winifred, rather than just Granny.

Q: The best bit of my job is…?

A: The delight and pride you see when you share someone’s story – when a person realises someone else is actually listening and genuinely noticing what they’re doing. The team of amazing new friends we’ve made – I couldn’t have designed a better group of interesting, funny, knowledgeable (and brutally honest) people. And I seem to have randomly collected them. Also, just looking at where we are and saying ‘We did that’.

Q: And the worst…?

A: Typos. It’s the biggest issue with being a small two-man production team – we’re doing everything, so it’s easy to miss a small thing like a typo or a missing word. But it hurts my grammar-trained soul.

Q: Who was your childhood hero?

A: Floella Benjamin and George from the Famous Five. Oh, and Willy Rushton for reading Winnie the Pooh on Jackanory and starting my lifelong love affair with the bear of very little brain. And when I was a bit older, Amelia Earhart. Just a fierce, strong woman.

Q: What’s your favourite smell?

A: Just one? Then it will have to be CoffeeBeansBiscuitsBakingCutGrassSandyOceanOldBooksHotRainBabyNecks. That’s definitely my top favourite.

Q: Where’s your favourite place in Dorset?

A: Maybe the back of Bulbarrow Hill, approaching Rawlsbury Camp when you get the first look across to the Dorsetshire Gap. And the ledges at Kimmeridge Bay. Can’t pick between them BUT – there are a bazillion tiny magical equally-important spots.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone starting out on a career?

A: Be curious, be open… and Google ‘Rick Rigsby’s Graduation speech’. Find your broom, and check how you’re livin’.

Q: What was your first record/CD?

A: Uh oh. *whispers* The Stutter Rap by Morris Minor and the Majors. Sigh.

Q: What gets you angry?

A: Unfairness. Unkindness. On a smaller personal level? Being patronised.

Q: Do you have a favourite piece of music?

A: I refuse to answer on the grounds I may incriminate myself. You will not make me a) choose between Einaudi, Nina Simone and Bon Jovi, nor b) acknowledge my love of the Country Music playlists on Spotify. Oh. Dammit.

Q: What are the qualities you look for in a new employee?

A: Humour, intelligence and the ability to spell.

Q: What’s your favourite food or dish?

A: Pizza. No, cake. No, a cone of crispy-but-fluffy-in-the-middle salted hot chip-shop-chips. No, pizza. And cake. With chips. And lasagne. And mussels. With wine (that is a food group, yes?).

Q: Steamed sponge pudding and custard or a plate of melon?

A: What kind of psychopath chooses melon over sponge pudding?

Q: Name the best thing about living/working in Dorset?

A: Dorset. Literally. Step outside your door, and it’s right there. I see buzzards overhead when I hang out the washing. Do you have any idea how that feels to a girl who grew up in a huge town in Essex?

Q: If you were Prime Minister for the day what would be the first thing you do?

A: Introduce regulations that no one could hold a senior position in government without a minimum of five years practical working experience in the relevant field. Also remove education and health service policies from short-term party politics, and ensure cross-political-party working groups of qualified professionals made all major decisions in those spheres. Oh, and I’d create a cabinet from as broadly representative of the British public as possible – 50% women, 90% state school educated, broad regional & cultural spread and all with practical work experience, obviously. It’d be quite a busy day, wouldn’t it?

Q: What’s your biggest frustration?

A: That crisps aren’t considered a lunch food in their own right. Oh, and the tone of surprise when people see what we produce.

Q:  Where’s your favourite holiday location?

A: Wherever my favourite human beans are hanging out. Is that a cop out? Sorry. Hmm. So… the Brecon Beacons for a family trip of fresh air and wide skies. France for a Do-Nothing holiday of sunshine, pool and all the breads and cheeses (and wines). If it’s just the two of us, then Italian cities with ALL the wines. My husband, Courtenay, hasn’t flown for 20yrs, so our trips are limited to Europe by car or train – though our son’s moving to the US, so there’s plane journeys in his near future now!

Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?

A: Older. Not much wiser. Still spilling wine, swearing inappropriately and gathering my favourite people together whenever I can to feed them. Except I’ll obviously be in a big house with two cats, three dogs, about 4 acres for the chickens to scratch in, and a normal-sized car instead of a rackety old people carrier required when you have four kids and then can’t justify selling even though they’re all teenagers and adult-sized.

Q: What would you like to be remembered for?

A: Being kind, and making people feel happier. And now I feel like a people-pleaser. I’m much tougher than I sound, honest! I’ve a core of steel. *cough* Maybe ‘for being told she probably couldn’t, and doing it anyway’.

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