Jojo Moyes: ‘I was a terrible insomniac – I played Scrabble all night’

How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Jojo Moyes 

6am

I have a horse who lives 40  minutes away, but I start the day by walking the dogs on Hampstead Heath – because I can’t guarantee my sons will get up to do it. Harry [22] and Lockie [18] live at home, and my daughter Saskia [25] lives only a few streets away.

8am

My diet is bad on a Saturday. I persuade the dogs into the bakery with a cheese straw, and buy a muffin. They’re nervous in enclosed spaces. Sisu came from Bosnia and, the day after we got her, she ran away. I had to track her for 10 days in the woods. Now, she’s stuck to me like glue. Pablo is less complicated. 

9am

I lived in remote countryside for 22 years then moved to a busy London street this year after my divorce. I was nervous, but it’s fantastic and we found a livery yard where my horse Joey Long Legs is very happy. I drive out there to St Albans to have a dressage lesson, which involves unlearning my bad habits. 

11am

I go to Pilates because I’m a middle-aged writer who spends her whole time hunched over a desk. One of the lovely things about London is being able to walk to a high-street massage. Inevitably they’ll say, ‘My God, your neck is like two steel girders.’

2pm

The shameful thing is, after years of cooking from scratch because I didn’t have a choice, I’ve discovered takeaway. I’ll get sushi or a poke bowl delivered, or go to Cinder, a small-plates restaurant nearby in Belsize Village. 

3pm

I like to write on Saturday afternoon. It’s the day I do my big thinking. I try to work out the big picture and ask, ‘What’s going to make this different from somebody else’s love story?’ I’m teaching a BBC Maestro course on writing love stories [available on bbcmaestro.com now] and I didn’t realise what I did until I unpicked it.

The coffee table is currently covered in notes because I realised I didn’t have a good enough idea for the second half of my next book. 

6pm

If I’m by myself, I have peanut butter on toast. I’ll sometimes make roast chicken for my boys but young men are spectacularly unrewarding to cook for – although they are genuinely good company.

9pm

My rock’n’roll treat is a zero-alcohol beer and a slightly tragic ritual of a few chocolate buttons, and I collapse in front of the TV. I loved Colin from Accounts.

10pm

I’m obsessive about skincare and take a worrying number of supplements. I’ll have Radio 3 on before bed but I don’t read much when I’m writing as I need to keep my own narrative voice in my head

I used to be a terrible insomniac and played Scrabble through the night. There were a lot of changes in my life and a lot going on, but I’m content now with where I am and I feel very lucky, so I’ve lost the anxiety that kept me awake.

But, if I struggle, I listen to monotone stories on Headspace. I never make it past 20 minutes.