NOTES FROM A TRAVELLER

I feel at home by the sea as I grew up in Brighton. I’m filming in LA at the moment and yesterday I took my kids up to Zuma Beach at the far end of Malibu. It was wonderfully empty apart from a few surfers. We stayed until the sun went behind the trees. I used to love doing that as a kid – just sitting for hours and hours on the Brighton pebbles, watching the sun glittering on the sea.

I’m very nomadic. My late husband Martin was a brilliantly adventurous travel companion and the orchestrator of our trips. He was just fantastic at finding places that no one else would go to. I mean, there were times when I’d have to say, ‘Babe, I’m not sure we should travel across the Zambezi in a kayak with two young kids – no one else is doing it, do you think that might be a sign?’ And he’d say, ‘No! Come on!’ I feel rather blessed to have had someone pull me, kicking and screaming sometimes, into places that otherwise I wouldn’t have seen.

I want to keep Martin’s adventurous spirit alive, so I have said that when each of my three sons turns 13 I’ll take them wherever they want to go in the world. My oldest wants to do the Great Wall of China – and doesn’t care how long it’ll take. My youngest asked if going to Wembley would count!

I can pretty much be happy anywhere. One place I was certainly at my happiest, though, was camping in the foothills of Kilimanjaro with the family. We had a Masai tribesman guarding our tent with a spear. It was in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around. But every morning hot chocolate and breakfast would magically appear.

I’m about to go to Angola to do a field trip for Unicef. I have to travel for two days to get there, it’s going to be an intense trip, but I’m really excited about it. That’s one of the great things about this job – I never know where it’ll take me next.

Watch Natascha McElhone in The Secret of Moonacre showing onboard on selected flights.

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