Life In Charms with Annoushka Ducas MBE

Charli Howard is a model, a writer, an activist and an entrepreneur. Her stellar career, and her profile, was kick-started by a brilliantly defiant letter she posted on Facebook having been fired by the first agency who signed her. Since then, as well as writing novels and creating her own skincare brand, she has become a catalyst for women celebrating their bodies, embracing their curves, and lov...

We are delighted to open Series 3 with an authority in the jewellery world and the 2022 Gem Award Winner for Media Excellence - Mel Grant. Mel is an award-winning author, writer, curator, stylist and art director and has written a definitive book on key designers and curated an influential exhibition celebrating black jewellery talent for Sotheby’s New York. She is the Jewellery Editor for The Eco...

Born into a creative, bohemian family who own the largest apple orchard in Europe, my guest this week has been called the Ralph Lauren of British fashion. Famous for her beautiful, ethereal clothing which is worn by women all over the world, she began, in her own words, as a ‘girl from Somerset designing tea dresses.’ During lockdown she has created a fabulous emporium back in her beloved Somerset...

Our final guest on this series of MLISC began her life as an occasional, very tiny guest on Blue Peter. Smart, beautiful and cool, she became a successful pop singer with a string of hits. She’s been a Strictly finalist and one of the Masked Singers. She’s the mother of five gorgeous boys. She danced into all of our homes with her Kitchen Disco during Lockdown and turned it into a best selling alb...

Stylist, editor and creative director, my guest today on My Life In Seven Charms is also known as the Queen of Thrift. A trailblazer who combined second-hand shop finds with couture for luxury shoots, she brought thrift into the mainstream. Her recent pop-up Oxfam store at Selfridges, fronted by Michaela Cole, was a sell-out. Her emphasis on the joy of thrifting has reached new audiences as fashio...

Known to fashionistas as the much-loved Mrs B, my next guest on the podcast is the original curator, the first and foremost fashion retailer with her multi-brand emporium Browns. A persuader, who was able to entice luxe brands to London, and a nurturer who scooped up entire collections from Central St Martin’s graduate shows, her career has spanned over fifty years in fashion. The first woman to w...

Writer, historian, educator, and someone who shone a light for millions of people around the world onto the recent history of China, Jung Chang wrote Wild Swans, one of the most influential multi-generational biographies of our time. She has also written meticulously researched books on Chinese leaders such as Chairman Mao and the Dowager Empress Cixi. Born fourteen years before the Cultural Revol...

Creating the spaces that people call home takes style, flair and emotional insight. They are qualities that my guest this week on My Life in Seven Charms has in spades. Her ascent has been remarkable. Founding her own agency aged only 24, she has quickly gained a reputation for warm, uplifting, gorgeous rooms which are filled with beautiful art. Eclectic and strong on sustainability, she draws on...

A International Women's Day Special - Being an Olympic gold medalist in one discipline takes talent, courage and resilience. Being an Olympic gold medalist in an event that requires brilliance in seven of them is utterly awe-inspiring. My guest this week found athletics when she was eight, and she was instantly smitten. Displaying extraordinary commitment and determination from the word go, striki...

A must-listen for any budding entrepreneur or dynamic creative, this week’s episode is with Holly Tucker. A trailblazer, an entrepreneur and a cheerleader for hundreds of small businesses, she founded Not On The High Street and in more recent years, Holly & Co . However, like many people, Holly's path to her passion has had some major obstacles, which true to her effervescent spirit, she has o...

Rachel Johnson is undoubtedly a high achiever, having navigated a career as a novelist, journalist, editor and now broadcaster on prime time radio and yet as many women of talent have often been, is all too often categorised primarily as the sister or daughter of a prominent man. A member of one of the most well-known political families of our time, in this chat Rachel, explores childhood memories...

The doyenne of decadence, Lucia van der Post is the pre-digital influencer having crafted a career as a tastemaker and a curator of beautiful things, most notably in her role which spans some decades, at The Financial Times How To Spend It Magazine, which she was fundamental to launching in the mid-1980s. In this, at times emotional chat with Annoushka, Lucia shares tales of early years in her nat...

Interior and Textile designer Kit Kemp is best known for shaping the boutique hotel industry known and loved today. Renowned for her stylish and witty aesthetic, immortalised through three critically-acclaimed books, here she shares childhood memories and tales of young love with Annoushka in a relaxed chat at The Hamyard Hotel. https://bit.ly/3LWKr8y

An icon in the world of fashion journalism, Alexandra Shulman OBE is British Vogue’s longest-serving Editor-In-Chief, as well as a successful author.  In this candid chat she reflects on life post Vogue; shares anecdotes from her time in the lens and unpicks how she balanced that with her other role, as a Mother. https://bit.ly/3vgw7C0

It has been said that no other individual currently working in fashion has seen the industry from as many angles as Caroline Issa, she’s a designer, an innovator and as the Editor of cult title TANK Magazine - a woman in love with both the written and spoken word. In this informal chat between friends, Caroline recalls childhood memories in Canada, how she discovered her roots in Tehran and how he...

Born into the rigid social hierarchy of the English aristocracy in the 1930’s, Lady Anne Glenconner’s life was stitched for many decades into the tapestry of the royal household, most notably as the late Princess Margaret’s lady In waiting. An author at 85, with her bestselling autobiography Lady In Waiting, My Extraordinary Life In The Shadow Of The Crown and on the cusp of launching her debut fi...

Jeweller Annoushka Ducas MBE has been collecting charms for as long as she can remember. Here she explores their unique ability to evoke memory and meaning with seven inspiring women, as they reveal their Life In Seven Charms.