IT'S impossible not to like Linda Lancashire. Bubbly, bright, perceptive and always sporting the broadest smile, it's as if she can tell what you are feeling at a glance.

Call it intuition, put it down to her psychic skills or simply her razor-sharp emotional intelligence but time spent with Linda is both therapeutic and uplifting as she reaches out to help you – even if you've only dropped by to interview her.

"Nothing ever shocks me, I've heard it all," says Linda. "People tell me everything."

And those people are from celebrity circles and the corridors of power as well as ordinary folk in need of Linda's guidance.

"I've met some marvellous people from showbusiness and film stars but I would never discuss what is said within these four walls. I take no recordings and everything is strictly confidential."

But though she cannot reveal who seeks out her counsel she does tell me that the same issues affect everyone – rich or poor, whether a star of stage and screen or a shelf-stacker at a supermarket.

"Relationships, money and health are the three key issues I deal with and, out of those three, relationships are the most complicated of all," says Linda.

The economy has also had a huge impact on the people who come to see her.

She says: "2011 was a strange year. People who have got into debt with loans and credit cards are worried about paying their heating bills this winter.

"When people are worried about money it affects their health. The mind, body and spirit are connected.

"If one of my clients is unwell my poodle, Hilda, picks up on it straight away. She touches their arm with her paw."

Hilda is one of Linda's dogs, the other being Tallulah. Linda adores them, dubs them her "psychic poodles" and even takes them to Radio Nottingham with her where she does a horoscopes slot.

"We love going on Radio Nottingham. I take them all cakes in. I think that's why they keep asking me back! I was thinking that I would love to do a radio show when, out of the blue, I was contacted by Radio Nottingham and asked to do one. I happened to mention I had a couple of poodles, so they said to bring them along.

"When I arrived, the receptionist called to let them know, saying 'the psychic poodles are here'. Well, after that, it sort of stuck."

It's easy to digress with Linda. She hops effortlessly between subjects, a waterfall of thoughts, and she can't resist giving you the benefit of her wisdom.

After discussing mistakes people make looking for love – "they go on these dating sites but when the time's right they will meet the right person. There's a day to be born, a day to die, a day for everything" – we get back to the vital issue of the year ahead.

"There is talk of 2012 being the end of the world because it's mentioned in the ancient Mayan calendar," says Linda. "My theory is that it's not the end of the world but the crash of the world's economy. We're building up to it. I don't think the Euro will survive.

"It will be a year of wobbles. Our Ice Age will be the crash of the money markets. Sadly, at times like these, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. History repeats itself.

"My advice to anyone struggling with money is to cut your cloth accordingly."

Linda dishes out basic common sense with gusto after years of coping with life's ups and downs – both her own and those of hundreds of clients over more than 40 years.

But Linda is remarkably upbeat. "I've been very busy in the last 12 months. And I expect it will be even busier after Christmas. It always is.

"The last year has seen me clearing out dead wood, clearing out cupboards, seeing people in their true light.

Linda, a Scorpio, adds: "Like a lot of water signs, I've been getting rid of things that aren't necessary. A new beginning is on the way."

Linda's life is filled with love thanks to daughter Katie, a fellow psychic, Katie's barrister husband Nigel – "he's just been made a judge and we're all very proud" – and the couple's two lively children Ben, three, and Finlay, two.

"My grandchildren are brilliant," said Linda, 58. "Life is what you make it. It's a state of mind. My cup is always overflowing. Every day is precious. I read the obits and if I'm not in them I'm pleased."

The poodles help Linda stay fit and well: "I walk them three times a day. They go like the clappers. I think they're on warp speed when they cross Shipley Park."

The exuberant dogs entered her life about 18 months ago – and she is convinced they have absorbed some of her psychic talents.

"Unless my clients are allergic to dogs, I always take them into my work room with me. Hilda picks up on bereavement. She will go up to someone and whine. I ask if they have lost someone recently and she is always right. She's a very unusual dog. I call her Hilda the social worker. And to think I very nearly didn't have her. I didn't really want two dogs. Hilda was an afterthought.

"Talullah is the top dog – she likes to dance and sing, she would love to be on Strictly Come Dancing – but Hilda is the sensitive one. If Talullah goes up to someone, I know that they have been dumped or have had a row with someone close to them. I will say to the client, 'I know you've been sobbing buckets over someone' and they'll ask how I knew and I'll say 'the dog just told me'.

"Dogs are very intuitive. They can sense people's moods and feelings and they can also sniff out drugs and some types of illness."

Linda's "work room" at her Heanor home, humorously called Broomsticks, is not what you might expect. There are no crosses or candlesticks, although she does occasionally use a crystal ball – "I don't see things but I pick up on the energies and translate what I am picking up."

The room is cosy but businesslike with two chairs and a table, framed tarot cards on one wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on another.

"I'm a bookaholic," says Linda, who left school at 15 with no qualifications and worked in factories and shops before following her calling. "I read anything and everything," she says, producing a book of verses entitled Tao Te Ching. "I am very interested in ancient Chinese philosophy. These are the 81 philosophic verses of a Chinese monk called Lao Tzu, who left his monastery and travelled the world. They show us that nothing has changed in the way people relate to one another.

"William Shakespeare's plays are the same. Our lives are still ruled by jealousy, love triangles, the desire for power. We just dress differently."

The daughter of poor Polish immigrants, Linda came from a strict Catholic coal-mining family in Mansfield.

"I had a difficult childhood. We were very poor. Life was not easy in 1950s, post-war Britain. I could not speak English until I went to school, so it was tough.

"My parents were unable to help because they were foreigners and had to learn the language. Thus I developed my love of reading.

"I learned to touch type when I was about 18. It was the best thing I ever did. I can type like the wind and love it. I love the written word.

"As a small child, I was forced to go to church. The mass was in Polish and Latin and I didn't understand it.

"But I love the atmosphere of old churches and cathedrals. I am a Christian but I believe in the law of karma – that whatever you put into life, you get back."

At 22, Linda married for the first time but it didn't work out, though the result of the union was her beautiful daughter Katie, now 33. At 35, she married again.

"Both husbands abandoned ship. I don't think they could cope with my work. In 2005, I got engaged to a chap who was very dashing but he lived in Qatar and, when he said he wanted to get married, I turned him down. I realised I would have to give up everything and I am actually very happy with my life. So I live with two poodles instead."

Linda can't pinpoint when she discovered her psychic powers. According to her mother, when she was ill with scarlet fever as a baby, a woman in white with long grey hair stood over her cot. "She appeared a couple of times. My mother had the gift, too, but never used it. It was only later that I realised she must have been my guardian angel."

At the age of five, Linda saw a dark apparition in their old Victorian house. She has continued to see shadows ever since.

"People often see things and don't know what they are. Lots of people have unexplained psychic experiences. It's the same with me."

Linda does not, however, claim to be able to contact people "on the other side".

"I confine myself to tarot readings, palmistry and predictions. Most people have a sixth sense but we're all on different wavelengths which is why so many of us don't get on. Mine is more developed than most – just like animals can hear and smell things that most humans can't."

She cannot, however, predict her own future. "No-one can," she says. "It doesn't work that way. We have to walk the walk to learn, develop, evolve and understand. How can I help anyone if I have not struggled through life's challenges?"

Right now Linda is busier than ever with her magazine horoscopes – including for our sister publication, The Derbyshire Magazine – radio work and private readings.

"My love life has been a wilderness," she laughs, "but I am very fortunate in being born with a vocation. I shall keep doing this until the day I die."

To book an appointment with Linda, visit www.lindalancashire.co.uk or call 0776 446 6381.