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As she prepares to showcase her new series on Italian cooking, Nigella Lawson is living la dolce vita, but her life hasn't always been a Roman holiday, as revealed in the latest issue of Radio Times...

Nigella on children: “I think it’s impossible to be a mother without a huge sense of failure. One is always aware of what one isn’t doing right... having children gives you lots of problems.”

Nigella on a well-spent youth: “My schoolfriend and I went everywhere [in Florence] asking for work and we ended up [as chambermaids]. We shared the job and a room that was so small you had to climb over the bed to get to the loo.”

Nigella on losing loved ones: “I feel sometimes I have to enjoy life for them as well.”

Nigella on dieting: "I'm always going to be someone who goes up and down... I don't equate thinness with healthiness...."

Read the full interview with Nigella, complete with her recipe for Sicilian pasta with tomatoes, garlic and almonds, in this week’s Radio Times, on sale now priced £1.40.