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I've spent a bit of time at photoshoots during my career. Probably rather more time than I'd have liked, to be honest. As a journalist, you often find yourself hanging around photographic studios waiting for some celebrity or worthy to have their picture taken before you get to interview them. And Hulse's Law states that the whole process of hair, make-up and actual snapping always takes at least twice as long as it's supposed to, thus reducing your time with said celeb or worthy. Possibly the nadir of this particular phenomenon came quite early in my career, when I was forced to interview Madonna while she was actually having her picture taken. As the photographer forced her into ever more painful contortions and she grew ever more grumpy, I would fire polite questions at her, which were generally met with the contempt they no doubt deserved.

During my time as editor of business:life, we've photographed a whole gamut of notables for our cover. The best sport was chef Angela Hartnett, who allowed us to splatter her with tomato sauce. The one who gave us the least amount of time was Prince Andrew, something of an amateur photographer himself, who maintained that since he'd managed to get a decent picture of the Queen in just six shots, we certainly wouldn't need any more than that. The one we hurt the most was undoubtedly Jonny Wilkinson, and I have to put my hand up on that one. My role was to pass a rugby ball to him so we could get an action shot, but I somehow managed to hurl the ball full in his face. I have to say he was quite nice about it.

And now it's your chance to step in front of the camera and star on the cover of business:life by taking part in our cover-star competition. It's in aid of a great cause — Flying Start, the charity collaboration between British Airways and Comic Relief UK. And if you win, I promise not to hurt you.

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