My perfect weekend: John Gordon Sinclair, actor and writer I've stuck with the haircut, partly because it's very practical but also because in the Seventies it was the haircut to have in Glasgow, but I was never brave enough then. I think I look a bit like a skinhead and my girls don't like it much. They keep asking me if I am angry, so it probably makes me look slightly sinister. Our daughters never sleep late and usually come into our bed on Saturday morning between 6am and 7am. That is if they haven't already sneaked in during the night. There is a bit of a conflict between Shauna and I over that. I quite like them to come in and snuggle up in the middle of the night but she says they should go back to their own beds. Generally I win by default as she is too tired to argue. Around 7.30am I bring up breakfast for all of us to have in bed. It's a liquid-free zone for the girls and they have dry cereal like Kellog's Honey Loops, without milk, which they can pick up and eat, and sometimes some toast. My wife and I have tea and toast. Shauna likes hers with butter. I like mine with strawberry jam. The girls rarely watch television during the week but we all do early on weekend mornings. It's either Scooby-Doo or The League of Super Evil. On Saturdays we all get up at 8.30am as the girls have ballet classes. Shauna often works all day Saturday, and when she does I take over. She's very organised and it's more chaotic if I am in charge. I drop off one daughter for her ballet class, then go with the other one to the village store to buy a cheese straw before taking her on to her class. Ballet takes up most of the morning. We then have a sandwich lunch in a local café. The girls like going there because the staff know them. After that we go home and they play while I deal with things domestic. I do my fair share because I don't believe in the gender divide when it comes to that sort of stuff. If something needs to be done, I do it. If Shauna is not on duty she will take the girls to ballet and then on to see friends. They have a much more sociable life with their mother. I don't think dads tend to hang out with other dads. If they are out I go to my hut at the bottom of the garden to write. It looks like a cross between a Tardis and Roald Dahl's writing hut on the outside but is wired up with all the gear for work - including an alarm system. It is where I wrote my first book, Seventy Times Seven, which has just been published. It's a crime novel set in Ireland during the Troubles of the late Eighties and early Nineties, with some emotion attached. I wanted it to be something people wouldn't expect from me, and it is quite dark. I am now working on my second novel. I have found the solitary life of writing books well suited to my personality and it's made me realise I am not a great team player. I have always wanted to write and initially thought of making a film script of my story, but then I realised it would probably sit on someone's desk for years, so I decided to write it initially as a novel, but I hope it may have a second life as a film. Early evening we all go to a Chinese restaurant in Dorking called the Fountain Garden. We time our arrival for 6pm, when it opens. We have our own little table by the fish tank and always have a few favourites - including prawn with ginger and garlic, fried tofu and cumin beef - then add different dishes to them. We began this regular routine because when I was younger and living in Glasgow my dad used to get a Chinese takeaway every Saturday and my brother and I would take bits of food from his plate to eat, which somehow made them particularly tasty. I wanted to get a feeling of structure with my girls so that when they are older they can say that on Saturday nights they used to go out with their parents for a Chinese. It's become so important to me that I get a bit annoyed if anyone invites us out on Chinese night. After supper we come back, the girls go to bed and Shauna and I either watch mindless stuff like The X Factor on the television or a DVD. I am on the voting panel for the Bafta film awards, and most days in November the postman brings a packet of DVDs of the latest films for me to watch and we pick one for Saturday night. It feels like early Christmas. Occasionally I also might play our piano. I can't read music but I like tinkering away. Next comes Sausage Sunday. There's a farm shop close by and they sell delicious home-made thin pork sausages, which I cook and we all have for breakfast in bed at about 7.30am. Shauna, who is Catholic, then takes the girls to church. I don't go. Instead I go to my hut and write. I used to think if I couldn't write for a whole day it wouldn't be worth starting, but then I realised that even half an hour's work helps move the story forward. We usually have friends, mostly those with children, round for Sunday lunch, and the amount of time I have to write depends on who's coming and what I am cooking. I do most of the cooking, and love having a houseful of people. We have a great local farmer and every six months or so buy a big box of different cuts of meat and shove them into the freezer. I might do a great Sunday roast or cook Thai, Chinese or Moroccan food. I even read recipes for pleasure. If we don't have guests, the girls and I set off across the fields to a pub about a mile away and have something to eat there while Shauna stays at home to catch up on work. The girls and I love our walks. They haven't yet got a concept of distance so if say we are going to Glasgow they always ask to walk there. Sunday evening is bath time and getting the girls ready for school. In the evening we watch more chill-out television. Although I prefer to take things as they come, when I look ahead I would rather see myself sitting in the south of France writing a novel than in Hollywood making a movie. I enjoy film, theatre and television work while I am doing it, but it is not something I hanker after. In short Herbal tea or stiff drink? Whisky sour What are you reading? Two books for pleasure: Voices of the Dead by Peter Leonard and God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, and two for research for my next book: Kosovo: A Short History by Noel Malcolm, and Imperial Ambitions by Noam Chomsky What music are you listening to? David Bowie's album Aladdin Sane Pilates or gym? Gym, and I do quite a lot of swimming Who is your Inspiration? My wife. She always sees the good in things and I quite often have to be reminded of that What has been your career highlight? Playing Leo Bloom in the musical The Producers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London in 2005 Your last supper? Crispy aromatic duck and a cold beer John's favourite things Spending time with my kids My Apple MacBook My writing hut My piano My mini fridge that is solely for beer Seventy Times Seven (Faber, £12.99) is available from Telegraph Books at £11.99 + £1.35 p&p.