I stood for parliament with the amazing support and help of my ex-husband, but it's not something that was handed to me like a peerage. I worked hard and was elected. So my achievements, such as they are, are my own.

I like motivational books, because I like the go-getting American spirit - your destiny is in your own hands, life is what you make it, don’t accept your limitations, jump before you’re pushed, leap before you look.

I'm not sure I make old bones in parliament. It's an amazing experience to have had but I can't see myself being Mother of the House.

Are you trivialising the sisterhood if you dye your hair or have your eyebrows threaded? I'd say the answer to that is no. But equally, it's a perfectly valid feminist thing to say there is a certain amount of attention on a woman's appearance, and I don't wish that to be the focus or a distraction.

That said, I can't emphasise enough - and I hope you print this - that I absolutely don't judge anybody at all who has an abortion, nor do I think they are murderers, nor do I think they are baby killers.

I want to retire very early, by the time I am 40, and go to live in Italy.

Once you are a proper, serious law-maker, you can't break the laws you're writing.