As George Orwell wisely observed a generation later, the only way swiftly to end a war is to lose it.

It's miraculous how much easier the computer has made my sort of work.

Lots of us when we're children believe 'oh well, if the world knew us as we really are, they'd know what wonderful, clever, brilliant, charming people we really are.'

There was no doubt that in the early and mid-eighties that many of us in broadsheet newspapers felt that we still had a responsibility to try to protect the Royal Family or if you like protect the Monarchy from the assaults of the media.

I've always found women more loyal, more disciplined, less neurotic, more hardworking. I just think they're perfect colleagues. Whereas, God knows, I've dealt with plenty of neurotic men.

If you can't get a job as a pianist in a brothel, you become a royal reporter.

A Tory government with a decent mandate seems the only hope of tackling the fiscal catastrophe responsibly.