Comfy chairs on the stage and a queue beginning to form for book signing – must be that most well organised of book festivals, Henley!
We love driving down to the Thames for this treat every year, but 2025 was my first year in the magnificent Town Hall. And my interviewer was the chief political commentator of the Independent, John Rentoul. John once started an AJ4PM campaign, touting me as the successor to Tony Blair. Apart from this lapse of judgement he’s one of the finest political minds in Fleet Street. He bought some campaign badges along with him for our discussion about Harold Wilson, who attracted a full house in a town that could boast of one recent Tory Prime Minister and one famous Tory DPM amongst it’s illustrious MPs. At the last election the constituency that’s been Conservative for 121 years went Lib Dem!!