**What was your first job?**
During university I was a part-time security guard in a local department store. After university I started as an accountancy trainee with the National Audit Office.
**What was the best advice you were ever given?**
There’s plenty of time for fun after you’re qualified. I was thrown out of university after failing seven out of eight exams but they let me back in to complete my accountancy degree when I promised to stop enjoying all the extracurricular activities that university life had to offer.
**Which was the last book you read?**
_The World Atlas of Gin_. Currently working through them.
**What would be the first item on your bucket list?**
Visit Saturn and fly through the rings. Failing that, any trip to space.
**Who inspires you?**
My dog. If not for dogs, many more people would need psychiatric help.
**How would you spend your ideal weekend?**
Capturing the beauty of a nebula or galaxy with my telescope.
**How long can you go without your mobile phone?**
I thought it was about 10 minutes but after visiting Alaska, where there was no signal, it turns out to be a week.
**What advice would you give the young you?**
Accountancy really is quite boring so do a science degree instead and apply to be an astronaut.
**What would be your luxury item on Desert Island Discs?**
That’s easy – my telescope. Just imagine how much more of the universe I would see with no light pollution on a desert island.
**Who would you most like to meet and why?**
Any astronaut – what is it really like to look at Earth from space?
