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Ellen Kent isn't shy when it comes singing her own praises - yet at the same time she demonstrates an underlying lack of self- confidence.
For although she passes up no opportunity to advertise her talents and abilities - 'I think I would have been a good opera singer' - she becomes flustered at the idea of having her picture taken - 'the last photograph I had taken made me look deformed'.
She makes much of the fact she was an 'uncontrollable' child who was held back by her dyslexia, but does so in way that makes you think she's quite proud of her wildness. And she leaves you in no doubt that, learning difficulties notwithstanding, she is highly intelligent.
Ellen is also an extremely overpowering personality. She starts talking even before any questions have been posed, provides little opportunity for you to interject and doesn't stop unravelling her life story even when you're bundling up your notepad and pen and heading for the door.
Despite the fact she patently has a high opinion of herself, Ellen displays a surprising defensiveness. Much of the interview is taken up with her justifying why she has poured so much of her creative energy into putting East European opera and ballet companies on to the British stage.
It makes you wonder whether part of the reason is a desire to buck the system, to mark herself out as different and to get up people's noses.
Getting up people's noses is something she admits to doing, and one can well imagine it. I reckon she gets a real kick out of the exercise.
But there's no denying that Ellen has done well for herself. She's one of Britain's leading opera producers and her company, Ellen Kent & Opera International, has been responsible for bringing to both the UK and Ireland much of the Eastern European opera seen here in the past seven years.
Later this month, Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre will stage her 19th opera tour - versions of Bizet's Carmen ('a completely new production') and Puccini's Turandot.
From her base in Chatham, Kent, Ellen has been working with Moldova's Chisinau National Opera since 1996 and last year the two companies signed an exclusive five-year contract - believed to...