A first time for everything in my life

first film, first concert, first celebrity-sighting, first teacher and many more

1. First historical figure I admired

Rather predictably, because I’m not alone in this, it’s Elizabeth I. I’m a bit too uptight to like Mary, Queen of Scots, who’s all scatty and emotional and tempestuous and passionate, and probably doesn’t complete her tax return on time. I’m much more of an Elizabeth I myself - swotty, secretive and self-disciplined.

2. First moment I realised I wanted to be a historian

I remember being entranced by the open drop toilet - just a bench with a hole in it, suspended over clean air - off the bedroom in the Tudor farmhouse at the Weald and Downland Museum in Sussex. I think the memory of that moment helps explain why, in all my history work over the years, I’ve had no shame in using silly, relatable things if needed, just to get people interested.

3. First film I saw at the cinema

Bambi, but I didn’t see it because I had to be taken out because I got upset. Couldn’t see Watership Down either. Or Paddington. Don’t get me started.

I’m holding my beloved Blue Rab. Obviously Watership Down was a no-no.

4. First famous person I remember seeing

I saw Queen Elizabeth II in 1976 on a visit to Canada, where we were living because of my dad’s work as a geologist. I was three years old, and wrote in my scrapbook: ‘the queen came’. I guess that was my first attempt at writing history.

To the point and factually accurate. My first work of history.

5. First time I felt overwhelmed by fame

It’s happened more than once, I’m sorry to say. It even happened last week when I was naked in the swimming pool changing room and someone came up to me and said ‘Are you Lucy Worsley?’ I’m always really tempted in that particular moment to say ‘no’.