Housewives' favourite Des Lynam may no longer be fronting sport on television but he's still a busy man, with his autobiograohy just published and his debut as the new presenter on the popular quiz show, Countdown, eagerly awaited. He talks to Steve Pratt.

The fan thanks Des Lynam for posing for a photograph with him during his book signing at Borders in York, adding as he walks away: "I couldn't get a picture when Murray Walker was here because the queue was all round the shop."

"Thanks for that," Lynam shouts after him, surveying the somewhat smaller number of people wanting to buy his autobiography, I Should Have Been At Work!.

To add insult to injury, the man hadn't even bought a copy, requesting Lynam's signature in his autograph book. Two students, on their way to rehearsals for a production of Julius Caesar, also failed to make a purchase but their good manners pleased him. He happily posed and signed a script for them.

He was less generous, though never rude, to the photographer who was still clicking away after 15 minutes, lying on the floor and seemingly intent on shooting up his subject's nose.

Lynam asked if the snapper had enough pictures, although the underlying tone suggested the correct answer was "yes". When the photographer failed to take the hint, a polite but brusque "Can you stop taking pictures now?" sent him scarpering from the shop.

If he'd read his book, he'd know that Lynam hates having his photograph taken. This might seem strange for someone who's made a living out of staring into a camera presenting sports shows like Grandstand, Match Of The Day and The Premiership. But he took time adjusting to TV when he moved over from radio.

"I found it very difficult indeed when I first started, in TV," he admits. "I'd worked in radio for some years and was finding it relatively easy. I became myself on radio fairly quickly without thinking too much.

"Then, with the camera pointing at me and all the technical stuff involved and no autocue, it was hard. I was pretty much camera shy and took a while to take to it. In the first year, I was seriously thinking about going back to radio."

He recalls, in his book, the time he froze on camera, not as a beginner but after establishing himself as one of TV's top sports presenters and commentators. He just stared at the camera, unable to say anything, during a World Cup programme. It lasted only a few seconds, although it seemed a lifetime to him.

Others dismissed it more easily than he did. "It was never a minor hitch to me because for a moment in my life I wasn't in control," he says.

He'd thought the Press would "skin me alive". To his surprise, they didn't write about his lapse. Writing about the incident and its aftermath in some detail shows how deeply it affected him. It's never happened again with smooth-talking Des never at a loss for words.

Writing his autobiography wasn't planned. He stopped doing mainstream sports presenting in 2004, after five years with ITV following his much-publicised defection from the BBC. "A little bit of a change of direction" seemed in order, forced partly by ITV losing the Premiership contract that had provided him with much of his presenting work.

"I would have been left with 13 programmes a year which wasn't very satisfactory," he says. "It was change time and the idea was put to me to do an autobiography. I wasn't too keen, but wrote a few things about my life and went on from there."

Not having kept diaries, writing proved "a severe memory test" that relied on his correspondence and help from friends and colleagues. He wrote another 30,000 words that didn't make the book.

He didn't shirk away from recalling moments of his private life that he'd prefer to forget. Housewife's choice Lynam has a reputation as a ladies' man that would seem justified from reading the book. There's talk of many glamorous blondes on his arm and, on one page alone, mention of three well-known women with whom he was stepping out.

He discussed writing about his personal life with long-term partner Rose, particularly the episode in which he was exposed as a love cheat by the tabloids. Their relationship survived the publicity and they're still together today.

"My private life became unprivate once or twice and I had to fill that in in the book, without going into the details of the situation, more how it affected me and how I dealt with it," he says. "We discussed it in fine detail - she was hurt once and will she get hurt again?"

He doesn't reveal Rose's reaction but the public seem to like his book. The nicest compliment he received was from a writer on one of the major papers suggesting the book should go into schools as a text on how to write an autobiography because it reads as though he is speaking.

With just one exception, he's never applied for a job but always been approached with offers. His new role as presenter of C4's long-running words and numbers game show, Countdown, came that way. There was much speculation about who should take over following the death of popular Richard Whiteley, who'd presented the programme for more than 20 years.

Lynam was a surprise choice to many, not least himself. "It never crossed my mind," he says.

He was on the wish list of both co-presenter Carol Vorderman and the producers. He still thought long and hard before accepting. "It's very tough to follow Richard and there are a lot of programmes in the year. I didn't want to take it on and do it for a couple of weeks and then say I didn't want to do it. I had to commit myself."

He made a pilot programme ("which I mucked up horribly because I wasn't sure of the rules") and has recorded 13 editions so far. He'll be making ten more every fortnight. "I've had a lovely welcome from everyone," he says.

"I'm not doing it because I need a few quid but because I was asked to do it and I love the show. I'm going to be different from Richard because I'm different. It will be interesting to see what reaction I get and it gets."

He thinks his days as a sports presenter and commentator are probably over, although he's done a couple of radio series and a greatest sporting legends series for Sky since his ITV contract ended.

"I've had a busy year all in all when I thought I would have a fairly relaxed year. I moved house and then Countdown came out of the blue," he says.

"I had a clear mind and a diary that was not exactly full to the brim. I thought I was going to write another book. I have a couple of ideas for fiction books but that will have to go on the back burner now I'm doing Countdown."

* I Should Have Been At Work! (HarperCollins, £18.99).