Advertisement
TV

Gyles Brandreth: ‘I’m disappointed – I wanted to be Prime Minister’

The writer, broadcaster and ex-Conservative MP talks political ambitions, Scrabble and Roger Moore’s eyebrows in his Letter To My Younger Self

Gyles Brandreth is no stranger to dabbling.

In his time he has notched up more than 300 appearances on Countdown’s Dictionary Corner, penned a book on the marriage of the Queen and Prince Philip and served time as a Conservative MP in the Nineties.

With such an eclectic and formidable CV, you would have thought that 16-year-old Gyles would have been impressed with what his older self had packed into his 71 years on earth. Not so, says Gyles.

“If I could go back and tell my teenage self what he’s achieved as an adult I don’t think he’d be impressed at all,” he tells The Big Issue in this week’s Letter To My Younger Self. “In fact I think he’d be disappointed. I wanted to be Prime Minister. Indeed there will be people reading this who wish I was Prime Minister. Brackets; you had your chance, the people spoke – the bastards – and I moved on. No longer available. I loved being an MP, I found my five years [between 1992 and 1997] fascinating.”

Throughout his lengthy and varied career, one thing has stood as a constant for Gyles – his love of the spoken word. And sometimes it has manifested itself in unusual ways, as he explains to The Big Issue.

He said: “The founder of my school was a man called John Badley. When I was 16 and he was 99 I used to go and play Scrabble with him. He beat me at every game. I became fascinated with words. I went on to found the National Scrabble Championships which, 50 years later, are still going on. I was for some years a director of Spear’s Games, who make Scrabble. As you see yet again, I never moved on from the person I was when I was 16.”

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

Read more from Gyles in this week’s Big Issue magazine, available from vendors and The Big Issue Shop now.

Images: Camera Press / Chris McAndrew

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Never miss an issue

Take advantage of our special subscription offer. Subscribe from just £9.99 and never miss an issue.

Recommended for you

Read All
Mum-of-two shares experience of 'dehumanising' DWP benefits system: 'It could kill somebody'
Image of Naomi Lihou
Benefits

Mum-of-two shares experience of 'dehumanising' DWP benefits system: 'It could kill somebody'

UK's 'cruel' benefits system is 'ruining lives' and 'violating human rights', Amnesty report finds
keir starmer walking
Benefits

UK's 'cruel' benefits system is 'ruining lives' and 'violating human rights', Amnesty report finds

Widower of disabled woman in bitter, years-long legal battle after DWP denied him benefits
Department for Work and Pensions

Widower of disabled woman in bitter, years-long legal battle after DWP denied him benefits

Transphobia and homophobia are terrible for the economy, report finds
London Trans+ Pride
LGBTQ+ rights

Transphobia and homophobia are terrible for the economy, report finds

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue