How healthy are you? I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. I only have to read about a terminal disease to think I've got it: if I have tummy ache I'm sure I've got stomach cancer. I vent these anxieties to my wife, who says: 'Why don't you go to a doctor?' Of course, I never do.

Do you worry about your weight? Yes and yes and yes. I'm quite short - 5ft 8in - so if I creep too far above 12st I start to get seriously alarmed. I've modified the Atkins diet - my wife calls it the Fatkins - and it works brilliantly. I still eat rice and couscous, but no bread or pasta. I start it on New Year's Day, drop about a stone in three months, and then I put it all back on during the rest of the year. Then the cycle begins again after Christmas.

Have you ever had any notable accidents? Someone opened their car door as I was cycling recently and I went flying over the handlebars. I picked myself up and started hurling abuse at the driver, until I realised that he was an extremely athletic-looking 6ft 6in. At which point I quietened down somewhat.

How much do you drink? To excess. I'll drink half a bottle of wine every evening as a matter of course, and if I go out I find it extremely difficult to drink in moderation. I was teetotal for about two years from 1999, after I thought my drinking had got out of hand. I was working in America, had broken up with a girl I was in love with and thought the only way I could persuade her to get back with me would be if I sobered up. That is the woman I subsequently married. I started drinking again the night of our wedding. But I don't drink anything like as much as I used to.

What's your attitude to smoking? I gave up when I was 24. Before then I'd smoked 20 a day for 10 years and was beginning to get an all-year-round smoker's cough. I think it probably stunted my growth because my parents were quite tall.

Is sex important to you? That's quite a tough question to answer... if I answer yes, I sound like a sex maniac. I regard sex as important but not essential. And I'm so fertile that I only have to stare at my wife across a crowded room and she gets pregnant.

Have you ever had therapy? No. I would like to have it, I just don't have the time. I'd quite like to lie on a couch and talk about myself for an hour a week. Who wouldn't?

Would you ever have cosmetic surgery? I can't afford it. If I could, I might have my penis reduced. As I get older I'm finding it increasingly cumbersome.

· Toby Young is the ambassador for the Reader from Sony. Pre-order from Waterstone's stores, waterstones.com and sonystyle.co.uk