Gyles Brandreth: ‘Never look back. You might fall down the stairs’

The writer and broadcaster, 71, on keeping busy, meeting TS Eliot and the Queen, and why his wife thinks he’s ridiculous

Busy people are happy people. When I was 10, the headteacher at my school, Mr Stocks, who was 82, gave me those five words of advice. And they have informed and directed my entire life. I think I found they were true at school, where I was very happy and very busy and probably very irritating. And I’ve not dared stop since.

My parents met over a game of Monopoly, the first set sold in the UK. My father bought it at Selfridges in 1937. He took it back to his digs at Gower Street and there was my mother, a student. A few weeks later, they eloped. Years later I became European Monopoly champion.

Continue reading...