Alastair Cook's My London

England Cricketer Alastair Cook shops in Covent Garden, is scared of snakes and remembers his choirboy days at St Paul's

Home is...
Hockliffe, near Woburn, in Bedfordshire. It's a nice place to live as it's just outside London.

Where do you stay in London?
When we play at Lord's we stay at The Landmark in Marylebone and when we're at The Oval it's the Grange City Hotel.

What's the best meal you've had in London?
The rump steak at Hawksmoor in Seven Dials, Covent Garden.

What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you?
I wasn't playing very well last summer and a ten-year-old kid came up to me with his mum and said, 'You're Alastair Cook, aren't you? You're not playing very well.' I started playing better after that.

What was the last play you saw in London?
I went to see Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre for the second time. Musicals are always good fun, although that one has a sad ending.

Which is your favourite London pub?
The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill.

What advice would you give a tourist?
Go to St Paul's Cathedral. I was a chorister there from age eight to 13 and it's an incredible
space.

Which shops do you rely on?
I get most of my clothes from Six Whiting Street in Bury St Edmunds because a friend of mine works there. In London I go to Selfridges - during the Test matches we only have a couple of hours off, so you need everything you want to buy under one roof. If I have more time I go round the smaller shops in Covent Garden.

What's your earliest London memory?
How loud the traffic was, having come from my Gloucestershire village to sing at St Paul's.

What would be on your tombstone?
'A nice family man who was half-decent at cricket.'

What makes you laugh?
Matt Lucas and David Walliams in their TV series Come Fly with Me, and the film The Hangover.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Chocolate Mövenpick ice cream. For a really guilty pleasure, I put extra cream on it.