Ahead of her tour, Mark Wareham finds the QI star in the middle of the woods where he hears how live performance is good for our mental health, how she's become a mean hand with a chainsaw and how she once got drunk with a decapitated crayfish…
Hi Sandi, where do we find you today?
Sandi Toksvig: I'm in my study in the middle of woods. It's quite high up, so it feels like a tree house. I'm looking out over a lake. It's lovely!
You're hitting the road soon to showcase your new novel, Friends Of Dorothy. What can audiences expect?
Sandi Toksvig: Anybody who's seen my show before knows that I go off in what I call rabbit holes of curiosity. But I'm going to be talking about books in general. I'm going to find the cleverest person in the room and we'll have some unexpected laughs along the way. No two shows are ever the same.
Will there be a Q&A session as well?
Sandi Toksvig: Yes. I like to see what the audience asks me, although some of it can be curious. There was a woman in Cardiff who asked me what my bra size was. I couldn't remember, so she had to come up and have a look.
You're also giving a copy of the book to everyone who buys a ticket…
Sandi Toksvig Yes, every single person gets a copy. I hope it will make people laugh out loud. The idea is you come to the show and have a good laugh. It's very important that we spend time together laughing. You are 30 times more likely to laugh in the company of others than on your own. But then you go home with the book and carry on laughing.
Your audiences are always full of such lovely people.
Sandi Toksvig: We just have a nice time. It's a bit like having a cup of tea one-on-one, but with a thousand people. It's very chatty. One time I asked "Who's got the strangest job?" This old man said he was the last handmade bicycle maker in Britain. He told us all about it and I said, "Well, that's marvellous, thank you," and moved on.
But he got out of his seat and came all the way down to the front and started banging on the stage saying, "I haven't finished." So I got a chair and a cup of tea and allowed him to carry on.
Your novel is about a family that is not biological but logical. Can you expound on that a bit?
Sandi Toksvig: It refers particularly to the LGBT+ community. People who maybe lose their biological family through cultural issues or personal issues. As you get older, I find a lot of my friends have become my family.
I'm lucky enough to have also got my biological family. But particularly for gay people who've been chucked out of their families, it's important to create your own. But it can be anyone. So it's a celebration of those families.
And what about the family in the novel?
Sandi Toksvig: Well, it's the story of a young lesbian couple who are lucky enough to buy their first home. But when they move in, the old woman from whom they've purchased it, a 79-year-old cantankerous woman called Dorothy, has failed to move out. She hasn't left. And comedy ensues. It turns out it's very difficult to get rid of somebody.
How much of your own experience about raising families is in the novel?
Sandi Toksvig: It's a world I understand. I wrote a novel set in the Boer War, and I had to do an enormous amount of research. So for this one, I thought I'm just going to sit down and write an amusing novel, and I'm not going to do any research.
So it helps that I understand how families work. I've got three children with my previous partner. It draws on what I know, but it's not in any way autobiographical. It's just something I made up from my head.
You clearly love touring and it's not something you're about to give up. What makes live performance so special for you?
Sandi Toksvig: We all need to be together. And not be looking at our screens. I quite often ask the audience, "Has anybody ever been on the local radio?" A woman put her hand up and said she was the longest baby in Lancashire. Who knew that was even a thing! Or we had the chairwoman of the British Moth Appreciation Society.
It's the unexpectedness. My wife and I didn't meet on an app. We met in a slightly unexpected way. You might be sitting next to the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with. There's something very life-affirming about being in an audience and having a laugh. It's good for our mental health. I've always loved it. I started in theatre. My first job was at the Nottingham Playhouse in rep. I guess it's the bug that never leaves you.
You're always so busy Sandi. But it strikes me that, even though you're into your 60s now, there's absolutely no chance of you slowing down.
Sandi Toksvig: My kids are very keen for me to slow down. The woodland has helped. And I have grandchildren and I love to be with them. But the world is interesting. And while you have the energy to try and make it a nicer place, it's not a bad thing, is it? It's not a bad ambition.
Tickets for Sandi Toksvig: Friends of Dorothy are available from brightondome.org