Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth (born March 8, 1948) is a British author, broadcaster and a former Conservative Member of Parliament for the City of Chester (1992–1997). He appears frequently on BBC Radio 4 panel games such as The News Quiz and Just a Minute.

Quotes[edit]

I had to pull about twenty pieces of broken glass out of my hand using tweezers and antiseptic cream. I'm never going to have a game of arm wrestling with Michael Howard again.
- House of Commons (9 July 1996), Hansard.

If you'd spent your life being called "Gyles Brandreth", you would crawl across broken glass to achieve the bliss, the simplicity, the purity, the joy of simply being called "Bob".
- Genius series 3, episode 4 (BBC Radio 4, [2007-10-22).

[On the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government] I think it should be made clear that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, they have not got into bed together; they are merely sharing a room.
- The News Quiz series 72, episode 1 (BBC Radio 4, 24 September 2010).

It's different now, it's different now. Now I can speak the truth. I can tell you that the one thing I really, really couldn't bear when I was an MP were my constituents. [laughter] Let's face it: the people have contempt for the politicians; it is as nothing to the contempt we have for you. [laughter] All over this country, there are politicians on their way to the Labour Party conference, coming away from the LibDem one, getting ready to go to the Conservative one, thinking "God, at last he's said it. He's said what we all feel, that happiness is the constituency in the rear-view mirror."
- The News Quiz series 72, episode 1 (BBC Radio 4, 24 September 2010).

Source: WhatsonStage interview, 2 Aug 2010 at whatsonstage.com

I describe what I do on the day that I do it. The nice thing for me is that I do lots of different things on lots of different days.

I get to my desk at eight in the morning and I leave it at seven in the evening and I just work away. I'm a work machine.

One of the interesting things about writing a play is that when you've finished it you have to give it away.

I've been keeping a diary since I was about 11. If you don't keep a diary everything washes away. And you can live everything three times: you live it when you live it, you live it when you write it down, and you live it a third time when you re-read it. Though I have to say rereading my diary for publication was a depressing experience. You shouldn't look back.

Source: Interview The Scotsman 12/8/2010 at edinburgh-festivals.com

Backbenchers are devalued. Their role is diminished. No-one even knows who they are unless they turn up on the front page of a newspaper because the taxpayer has been footing the bill for their duck house.

Lewis Carroll is somebody who wore different hats. He was a clergyman, a mathematician, a teacher. He wrote serious books, and amazing children's books. He was a photographer. So like most people, he was many people in one skin. Creatively, he made a greater impact than almost any other Victorian, and yet we know next to nothing about him, we just fall back on the old cliché.

Source: Liverpool Echo

We are very happy to be here. Can I say that as well? This is a happy place to work. I enjoy coming in here and have done since I began coming in.
- This Morning (ITV, 29 May 2023).

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Gyles Brandreth