Guilty Pleasures: Kirsty Wark On Martha Stewart.Com

I'm the first to laugh at the fantastic Martha Stewart spoofs. Now she's doing time, there is a great website which mimics her magazine cover, with features like: "Make your cell look bigger with horizontal stripes." I have to admit, though, that I'm a big fan of the real thing.

I'm the first to laugh at the fantastic Martha Stewart spoofs. Now she's doing time, there is a great website which mimics her magazine cover, with features like: "Make your cell look bigger with horizontal stripes." I have to admit, though, that I'm a big fan of the real thing.

Martha Stewart's website is terrifically well laid-out, and a great place for finding recipes, gardening, gifts, all sorts. It is a very pleasing site to browse.

I'm the kind of person who likes well-thumbed dirty recipe books, but her site has great cooking tips - if you want to find a recipe for leeks you just punch it in and there's a whole selection. It's a great way to spend half an hour. Some people would go and chill out in front of the television, but I find it really relaxing to visit marthastewart.com. I know I shouldn't really be on it, but hey, you've got to have some fun.

Years ago a friend in Paris set up a subscription to the magazine for me - I still get it from time to time - and you just get sucked in.

It's like a Blue Peter presentation. Very few people have time to sit down and do half the things she suggests; there's no way you're going to do a cut-out of a doily on top of a glass. The whole thing is quite over the top and some of it is for if you don't have a life, frankly. But others are actually quite good hints for homemaking and it is interesting. Sadly you can't buy anything in Britain from her website.

Though she is now a figure of fun, a lot of her suggestions are really quite sensible and redeem her site. It's that mixture of satire and being able to deliver something interesting - alongside a feeling of guilt for being there - which makes it a guilty pleasure.

Kirsty Wark presents 'Newsnight' and 'Newsnight Review' on BBC2