As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?

But we are entitled to look for continuity in politics.

As I said, I had no publisher for What a Carve Up! while I was writing it, so all we had to live off was my wife's money and little bits I was picking up for journalism.

Well, mainly it's because I'm not a writer who's comfortable with writing about periods that I can't remember firsthand.

Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do.

I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle afterwards, I did sometimes feel I could hear him whispering in my ear while I was working on it.