I feel fine about how I look. I'm in my late 40s, fitter and more at ease in my skin than I was 20 years ago. When I was a teenager, I was into reading and very sedentary, and at university I drank whisky and smoked. I changed shape after having children, and am now under eight stone - two stone lighter than I was. Either my metabolism changed or I just became more active. People think of me as a little person, but it's taken me a while to catch up. Out shopping, I'll pick something to try on, and my daughter will say: "That's too big."

I am an assisted blond, but would never have plastic surgery. My mother and mother-in-law have lived to a very old age and their faces are maps of their lives - why would you not want that? I like the lines round my eyes, but I am sure that is partly because I look better than I did, so I don't have the sense of loss of youth.

Apart from concealer, I don't wear make-up daily: for me, make-up is part of putting on posh clothes. I've noticed that the difference between me rested and me worn out is about 25 years. So I've started to have treats, such as facials and pedicures, and when I'm on a book tour I have a massage.

Sharing a name with Kate Moss makes me laugh. People feel obliged to say something along the lines of, "Oh, you're much prettier", which is obviously not true. So I head off comments by saying, "I know I am much older, shorter and more tired than her." Then nobody needs to be embarrassed.

· Kate Mosse's latest novel, Sepulchre (Orion), is out in paperback.