Favourite person?
My mother. I was never someone who said that my mother was my best friend growing up. She wasn't. She was very much my mother, but as I get older, the years between us seem to have narrowed, so we seem all almost equal. She has a very strong moral compass. We disagree about lots of things but she’s incredibly kind, and she's very good at what she does. My dad died when I was nine, and my sister was six, and Mum was only 34. I have a 16-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son and I got divorced last year and I felt so bereft, and that everything was on my shoulders, and yet their father is still alive. I really admire how Mum managed to bring us up, and not make it weigh too heavily on us. And she's incredibly fun to be around. We know everything about each other. If I had a choice of two favourite people, I would say my mother and my daughter.
Favourite memory?
I just spent a long weekend in Milan with my two Olgas: Olga senior and Olga junior, my mum and my daughter. There was a moment when we were sitting at the table and my daughter and my mother were having a glass of wine and I felt really happy. There were tears in my eyes.
Favourite place to walk?
Without a doubt Sussex. It's a circular walk from the hotel along the Cuckmere and across the A27 to the Cuckmere Haven, up over four and a half of the cliffs, cut through Alfriston Forest and go all the way back to the Pound Harrow across country to Litlington and rejoin the Cuckmere Pass the other side of the river. That takes about four and a half hours.
Favourite thing about yourself?
I know how blessed I am and I try and always see the silver lining. I don't always manage it. I do try very hard to always realise, acknowledge and appreciate just how fortunate I am.
Favourite thing about your work?
It's not boring. There's always a new challenge, something different on my plate because of the portmanteau nature of what I do. If I'm bored of going through housekeeping standards, I can go and serve in the restaurant or I get a chance to comment on how someone else is doing something badly in their own business in the TV stuff, or problem solve, or deal with a complaint. There's lots of different aspects. I still find it really fascinating.
Favourite saying?
I've got two. ‘No good deed goes unpunished’. The lure of unintended consequences is what I mean by that. And then lovely friends Cate and Nash in the bookshop in the village have made me completely addicted to a Dorothy Parker saying: ‘What fresh hell is this?’. Apparently, she used to say it when someone unexpected would turn up at her door. It’s quite often in the day where you think, “Oh my God, the restaurant manager's resigned again”. It's useful on myriad occasions.
Favourite smell?
I've been wearing the same perfume for years; Man by Ormonde Jayne. My friend Linda Ormonde is the perfumier. People say that when I've been in a room, they can smell I've been there, and I love it on myself.
Favourite place in Sussex?
Can I say The Star because I love it and when I turn up, I always have a little lift of the heart and think, “Gosh, I've managed to do this”.
Favourite food?
I do love a veal escalope with marsala and steamed spinach. If I had a last meal request, it would definitely be that. I don't eat much red meat anymore, but that still gets me every time.
Favourite drink?
I drink white wine by the gallon. But if it was a cocktail, it would be a Negroni.
Favourite decision?
Funnily enough, it's about the hotel. Mum and I almost bought it in 2018. I think if we had, and then COVID happened in 2019, it would have been a disaster because we'd have bought it for a very inflated price and just finished the work and then have had to be closed. We revisited it in 2019 because I was feeling a bit braver, and we really discussed it, and I'm so pleased that we did it, ultimately, because we very nearly didn't.
Favourite Sussex restaurant?
That’s something that I moan about constantly in Sussex, that there's nowhere nice enough to eat. I know there are lots of newcomers, but I haven't eaten in them. The place I mostly eat in is Pomodoro and Mozzarella in Eastbourne. It's very jolly, and you get what it says on the tin.
Favourite time of day?
Definitely mornings when everything's possible.
Favourite season?
I would say the summer if we ever got one in this country. I'm very solar powered, Mediterranean. And I find this time of year, the long, slow descent into winter really painful, and I absolutely loathe what passes for spring when it's still cold and dark and you're supposed to be feeling more cheery, it doesn’t work for me...
Favourite book/author?
One of my favourite books is The Reader by Bernhard Klimt. And then something like The Alexandria Quartet by Durrell and anything by Hemingway. I think Hemingway is just the most amazing writer, although it's always so tragic. The Sun Also Rises just kills me every time I reread it.
Least favourite thing?
I hate the fact that one's not allowed to say what one thinks anymore. It terrifies me, lack of free speech. And it worries me when people are no-platformed, it literally brings me out of hives.
Favourite thing about Sussex?
It's a county that’s just never boring. Maybe it's because I know it so well now. I find it really interesting the way that one can go from the walking to the culture, and by that, I mean things like the Fish Sheds in Hastings where the fishermen hang their nets to dry. I like the fact that it's rather hid its light under a bushel for ages. The thing I get from guests in the hotel, and I inevitably talk to them at breakfast, and suggest things for them to do, is they always say, I had no idea that there was so much in Sussex. I think that's a mistake lots of people make. It's not grand Sussex, and it's a little bit pretentious East Sussex, but really there’s a bit of something for everyone.
The Star, High Street, Alfriston, East Sussex. 01323 870495
