The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Highlights - Terry Wogan

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature opened on Tuesday night with an In Conversation session with Terry Wogan. The veteran Irish broadcaster was in fine form, regaling audiences with quips and tales from his childhood and radio career. Here are some of the highlights.

On his father's love for fly fishing

He loved to fish, but for my father it wasn't about the fishing. I think this is the case for most fishermen; it's not the fishing but the getting ready for it. And I would sit there watching the corned beef sandwiches curl in the end, waiting for him to fish. Because to tie the flies, that's what he really wanted. And then, as the sun would go down behind the hedges, he would cast his first fly. As darkness would be setting in, he would get us on the bicycle - put me on the handle bars - and would go home to my mother who couldn't cook to save her life.

On landing his first job as announcer for Irish broadcaster RTE I lied to the bank manager and told him I was going to the dentist. And I went in there for the audition and they offered me announcer training. You see, they used to train announcers then, they don't anymore, that's why you get so many idiots, really, in news.

On meeting his wife Helen Joyce We were at a party. She didn't want to go and she only went because some friends were going. I went because no one ever asked me anyway. I've seen her before. She was really famous, as a model she worked for Vogue, in Paris and all the rest of it and she also did some acting, as we all did. I've seen her onstage, and of course she was extremely beautiful. If I hadn't have been working in radio, if I had been the simple bank clerk of before, I would have never approached her.

On his early radio days in Dublin where he experienced his challenging broadcasting moment yet

It was half an hour bulletins in those days, which is quite a lot for radio. About a minute in, my nose start to bleed. I was a bit prone to that, I was a delicate child. So can you imagine how it's like? For the next 29 minutes....I nearly bled to death. What could you do? I was locked in, you are in control of the microphone, nobody knows what's going on and the steady patter of blood on the script. That is something that I will never forget.

On Irish masculinity Helen (Wogan's wife) was standing there, and a fella comes up to her and says "excuse me miss, would you like to dance?" And she said "no thank you." And the fella says "argh, you are too old for me anyways." You see, in the Ireland that I grew up in, no girl has ever refused a fella their dance. It undermined his dignity, machismo, everything.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is on until Saturday at the InterContinental Hotel Dubai, Festival City. For all event details, go to www.emirateslitfest.com