Norman Tebbit was a giant among Conservative politicians of the late twentieth century. His image on Spitting Image as the ‘Chingford Skinhead’ belied the reality that he was an immensely kind, softly ...

On Saturday Keir Starmer will celebrate his first anniversary as prime minister. Well, when I say ‘celebrate’, that’s perhaps overdoing it. Perhaps ‘mark it’ is more accurate, because he hasn’t got a ...

Today is publication day for my new book THE PRIME MINISTERS 1721-2020 - THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. It was lovely to get an invite to mark the occasion to go on the TODAY PROGRAMME ...

Taken in March in our back garden in Kent. Taken from a passing train at Tonbridge station by Radio Kent presenter Dominic King. At Dan's wedding in October. With cousin Richard Dale, on a visit to ...

We all know that all good things come to an end at some point, and so it is with this era of the For the Many podcast. Why? Because Jacqui has been elevated to the House of Lords and has been ...

I first appeared at the Fowey Festival at least 20 years ago. My role was to interview Ann Widdecombe about one of her novels. I fell in love with the place and went back to Fowey a couple of times ...

Further collections of interview with Margaret Thatcher be found here 1960-79, 1979-90 KERA In ...

Because of eyesight issues which affected me earlier in the year I have probably read fewer books this year than any other year in my life, But here are ten I have really enjoyed and would recommend ...

Last Sunday I featured in the Sunday Times Homes supplement in their Times & Space feature. Our house near Tunbridge Wells in Kent isn’t beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but when my ...

Feeling sorry for politicians is about the worst thing that can happen to them, but – and call me old-fashioned – even I have started to feel sorry for the flailing Keir Starmer. The poor chap has ...

This morning, a friend sent me this piece, which had appeared on his Facebook feed from someone called Sean McCarney. To me it summed up the whole Brexit debate, and indeed most of my own reasons for ...

My generation has been lucky. We’ve never had to fight a war, unlike those of my father’s and grandfather’s generation. Indeed, my Great Uncle, Clifford Norden, was killed only ten days before the end ...