reading." Shamefaced laugh.After school, theatre studies, including clowning. Would she make a good clown? "Maybe." Did you learn to fall? "No, you just found your inner clown. 'Cos everyone's got a clown." She twists her fingers together earnestly "It was the funniest thing. You put on something you don't usually wear - I had a sou'wester and wellies - and a red nose, and it's hilarious. You don't even need to do anything." Annoyingly, the image is heartbreaking. "I still use a tiny bit of that when I perform, because I get so nervous, and being in your clown is like putting a mask on." And in your clown, you find the funny part of yourself? "Oh, it doesn't have to be funny." She nods.

"A serious clown works." What was yours like? Off-hand: "Quite shy and .. a bit stupid Unfortunately."Acting was the plan, as far as one existed The music bit came during school. When I was in the car with my parents he wasn't allowed to come with us, but I'd see him outside, swinging round lampposts .. " Alex hated school. "I just don't think I liked conforming, and school's not equipped for dealing with individuals, is it?" She looks down, then sullenly up, and suddenly it's Kevin the teenager. I was supposed to have met Alex for lunch, but apparently if she goes out these days she's torn to bits by fans. Sitting opposite me, boyish in skater gear and wristbands, she raises a brow She's ridiculously pretty. "I don't think of myself as famous, but people treat me like I am. I mean, we're [gestures around] here, and I am, and it's stupid for me to think I'm not.

I just [laughs] can't seem to get it into my head." Daughter of liberal parents (Dad's a psychotherapist), Alex's childhood in the Cornish village of Mount Hawke sounds like a Swallows and Amazons idyll "I loved it. I'd spend all my time running around fields, barefoot in the long grass." (Her legions of gay fans will like that.)Youngest of four by some way, she had an imaginary friend: "A man, but very playful, like a boy. If you want originality, vulnerability and courage, here it is; what a jaw-dropping thing for tacky old prime-time to deliver.And so. Alex won by a landslide, and her first single instantly topped the charts Her appeal is phenomenal.