I never intended to write an autobiography. I didn’t think I was famous enough. I have never been elected to anything and felt it would be a self-indulgence. Over the years, though, I’ve been involved in quite a few interesting incidents and met a lot of interesting people. Someone suggested I should write a couple of chapters and see if I enjoyed it. Much to my surprise I did. And so Have I Said Too Much? was born.
Its original title was A Dish Served Cold, but it’s really not that kind of book. The only people I really lay into are Isabel Oakeshott and Kay Burley. Forgive me. The title then changed to Shooting from the Lip – a reference to my career in speech radio. Then I heard Alan Carr tell Graham Norton his comedy tour was called Have I Said Too Much?. I jumped off the sofa and exclaimed to my husband, “That’s it! That’s what I’m going to call the book!” It’s not exactly a high point of my career to acknowledge that I have deliberately plagiarised Alan Carr…
The loss of an ally
The second weekend of July turned out rather differently to the one I had planned. When I woke up on the Friday, I thought I’d have a nice relaxing day watching Wimbledon and the World Cup. I then switched on my phone to see a deluge of texts offering condolences. Slightly mystified, I scrolled down and eventually realised it was Ann Widdecombe they were talking about. “Oh no!” I exclaimed, and began to weep. How could this happen? She was so full of life.
Most people on the left viewed Ann as a homophobic bigot. She was nothing of the sort. It is true that she voted against all sorts of pro-gay and equality legislation. Her views on social issues – abortion included – were all based on her devout religious faith.
But the very same people who traduce her for this seem only too happy to support devoutly Islamic regimes in which homosexuality is illegal, and gay people are routinely imprisoned, tortured and killed. They then condemn Israel, the only Middle Eastern country to support gay rights legislation and where gay people can enjoy Pride events.
Anyway, I digress. Ann had nothing against individual gay people, such as me; it was the concept of homosexuality that her faith would not allow her to accept or embrace.
She came to the aid of individual gay men who were going through troubles. When my friend Ashley Crossley was having a torrid time in 2003, his local Conservative association in Cornwall having tried to deselect him after they found out he was gay, she immediately got on a train and told the local party what for. Bigots don’t do such things. She had so many close friends who were gay that I once told her she was the biggest “fag-hag” in the Tory party. She roared with laughter and said, “Yes, and I love them all.” And she did.
In the footsteps of giants
Sean Magee was a giant of the publishing world. He is one of four people I know who have died in the past few weeks. He was not only a superb editor and publisher, he was also one of the great racing industry aficionados, as well as an accomplished author in his own right. When I founded Politico’s Publishing in 1998 he was on board right from the start, bringing authors like Peter Hennessy, Peter Riddell, Brian Brivati and David Blunkett to us. I am sure every New Statesman reader has at least one book Sean commissioned or edited on their bookshelves.
In 2003 he had the idea of publishing a book of essays by his great friend and inspiration, Michael Foot. He took me to Michael’s house to record an interview with him about it. It was the first interview I ever did in which the interviewee fell asleep mid-conversation – then Tony Benn did the same thing a few years later. Sean never sought acclaim or headlines, but he deserved them nonetheless.
United in disdain
The cover of my book is bedecked in claret and blue, the colours of my beloved West Ham United. Our former right-back, Lionel Scaloni, was the one who gave the ball away to Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard in the 2006 FA Cup final, which led to our eventual defeat. Scaloni is the current manager of the Argentine national team, and he seemingly instilled in his players a desire play more dirtily than any other team during the World Cup. It takes something to unite the world against you, but he managed it. Viva España.
Iain Dale’s book Have I Said Too Much? (Biteback) is out now
[Further reading: So I’ve been shamed by the Daily Mail]