I am also a practising primary school teacher and trained at London's Institute of Education regarded as one of Europe's leading teacher training establishments

I love sport and keeping fit and regularly compete in triathlon and distance running. In May 2011 I biked from Lands End to John O'Groats.

I am a regular theatre goer and belong to a number of theatre clubs from fringe to west end.

Food is my oxygen! I love eating out and enjoying food in all its forms and nationalities, from a greasy spoon to a Michelin star.

To really discover London's heart and its secrets you have to do it on foot, dust off those walking shoes and come and explore.

Explore the 'hipster' streets of Shoreditch and Spitalfields and see amazing murals big and small, monochrome to multi-coloured. Artists from all around the world including Banksy, Roa, Jimmy C and Stik.

From Windsor to Buckingham, and Hampton Court to Kensington, join me to explore these amazing buildings with glamour galore and centuries of Royal shenanigans.

Whether St Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, London has a smorgasbord of fantastic churches. Be it Norman, Gothic or Baroque each one has its own unique architecture and incredible stories to tell.

In a city that's nearly 2000 years old there's no shortage of history. Starting out with the Romans, we move on to the Anglo Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans, the Tudors, the Victorians and that's just scratching the surface.

With Shakespeare and Dickens you have 2 of the most famous writers in history and both of them spent large periods of their life in London. For Dickens, London was as much the star of his books as his famous characters.

SInce London is essentially a city comprised of hundreds of different neighbourhoods, many are worthy of a tour in their own right, Greenwich being the untimate example with its riverside location, Royal and Maritime links and also being the home of time. Shoreditch and Spitalfields also combine the old and the new with its various waves of immigration, its latest being the hipsters!

With a population of nearly 9 million, London embraces all religions and as such it has impressive places of worship for all denominations. From charming churches to splendid synagogues and magnificent mandirs to beautiful Buddhist retreats, London caters for all.

With the Queen about to celebrate her 70th jubilee, London's royal connections are abundant right across the city. From the official home of the monarch at Buckingham Palace to the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, not forgetting Westminster Abbey where Kings and Queens have been crowned for nearly a thousand years.

London is a shopping Mecca. Boasting the largest shopping street in Europe, Oxford Street as well as being book-ended by two magnificent malls in the east and west. If department stores are your thing, we arguably have the most famous of them all with Harrods and the multi-award winning Selfridges as well as the Queen's very own grocer Fortnum and Mason. Those looking for sartorial elegance, look no further than the world famous Savile Row.