Panel show favourite vows deviation without hesitation

FANS of Gyles Brandreth will be spoilt for choice when he comes to Henley Literary
Festival later this month.

The prolific writer, broadcaster, jumper-wearer and former MP for Chester is speaking in the Marquee at Phyllis Court on Saturday, September 28 and he has various topics in mind.

“I love coming to Henley,” says the 76-year-old, “and it’s not that far from me. I live in south-west London but I’ve got a challenge this year because I’ve got several books to talk about.

“I have lots of besetting sins, but one of them is namedropping, and I’ll be doing a bit of that in Henley.

“Now, I’ve been coming to Henley, well, I was there in the first year. Over the years, I’ve written a lot of books and they usually reflect my enthusiasms.

“One of the books I know I’m coming to talk about at Henley this year is called Prose & Cons: The English Language In Just A Minute, and my passions in life include the English language and so it’s a fun book about words and language and the game of the book is that I’ve tried to do each section in just a minute, so like the radio show Just A Minute because I’ve been doing that since the Eighties. That’s one of my passions, so I may have to talk about that.”

Gyles, who has written dozens of books, will also talk about his tome The Seven Secrets of Happiness.

He says: “I discovered a few years ago that happy people live seven to 10 years longer than unhappy people, so if I’m going to make the 50th anniversary of the Henley Literary Festival, I’m going to need to live to be 100.

“So, I’ve done this book based on some work I did a few years ago with Dr Anthony Clare, who was a psychiatrist based in Dublin, he had a radio show called In The Psychiatrist’s Chair and he seemed a very wise man.

“We devised these seven secrets of happiness, one of which is to cultivate a passion, so have things that you are enthusiastic about that can keep you going, usually something beyond your work.

“In my case it’s words, language, literature, but it could be anything, it could be singing in a choir, it could be playing golf, it could be painting.

“You’ve got to have a passion in life, an enthusiasm. In fact, that leads me on to the next book, which is the book about the [late] Queen, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. I think the Queen lived so long and so happily because she had purpose, she was driven by duty, sustained by faith, but she was kept happy by her dogs and her horses. That was her passion in life.

“So, I’ll be talking about at least those three and I might also be talking about my political diaries which have just been reissued, Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries.

“People seem to find politics fascinating and the thing about my diaries is that, when I published them, it was the first time someone who had worked in the government whip’s office had ever published an account of what it is like day by day.

“It’s a book about the reality of politics. I now have a daughter who is an MP, but I gave her the hardback, I’ve given her the paperback, I’ve given her the new edition, she’s even mentioned in the book, and she has not opened it. I mean, what does that say? Honestly,” he laughs.

“What’s even more piquey is that she’s asked me to sign copies of the book for her to give away at fundraising events in her constituency, so really, what can you do?”

Gyles has embraced the digital era, with a podcast named Rosebud and even a daily online puzzle called Full Rainbow.

“That’s again a sort of passion of mine, I love words, wordplay and word games and so I began this.

“It’s a daily anagram and I do think of all the words myself and then I send them to my computer guru, who feeds them into the machine and out they come as the game Full Rainbow. I’m pleased to say we’ve got tens of thousands of followers.

“It’s quite fun doing new things and I do a podcast now called Rosebud, which we do every week where I interview a famous person about their first memories.

“What’s interesting is that from when I started out going to literary festivals — my first book was published more than 50 years ago — the world is totally different. Podcasts didn’t exist, there was just the BBC, everything was still called the Home Service.

“So now I meet people on Rosebud and I’ve been lucky enough to interview everyone from Dame Judi Dench to Sir Keir Starmer.

“That’s actually one of the secrets of being happy, is not to resist change.

“And my instinct is to resist change, I don’t like newfangled things. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get into heaven, because I won’t remember the password to get me in there.

“But in fact we shouldn’t resist change, it makes you unhappy, and change is the salt in the soup of life. So, I’m pleased that I’m doing digital things like Full Rainbow, that people can do on their phones or their computers, and podcasts like Rosebud, though I have to say, when I go to the shop, put down the shopping bag and the voice says, ‘Unidentified object in bagging area’, I do want to kick the machine.”

Gyles is well known for his humorous and colourful jumpers and has now made versions of them available to buy online at gylesandgeorge.com — but he is holding firmly on to his collection.

“One of the most popular of my jumpers was one that was bought in the Eighties by Princess Diana. It says on the front, ‘I am a luxury’, and on the back it says, ‘few can afford’.

“That jumper and another jumper of mine, which has got a beautiful heart on the front, you can buy [versions] online.

“I’m keeping [the originals]. My wife would like to get rid of them. She has told me that she has got this skip company on rapid dial, and the moment I fall under the bus, before she calls the undertaker, she’s getting hold of the skip company and they’re coming and they’re collecting all my jumpers.

“I try to choose an appropriate jumper for where I’m going, so I might well wear my heart jumper when I come to the town, because my heart belongs to Henley.”

• Gyles Brandreth is in the Marquee at Phyllis Court for Henley Literary Festival, on Saturday, September 28, from 10am to 11am. Tickets cost £15 adults. For more details and to buy tickets, call the box office on (01491) 575948 or go to www.henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk