BLUSHES FOR TOPLESS CHERIE

IN 1997, during Tony Blair’s first premiership, he was having trendy parties of so-called Cool Britannia media people.

For some reason Margaret and I got invited to one of their receptions. Margaret agreed to go with me, after I twisted her arm, and it turned out that Cherie Blair was a fan of Margaret’s books.

Some time later, I got a call from a tabloid picture desk saying they had a topless photo of Cherie in some villa in Italy reading a book. They gave me the name of the book, and I recognised it as one of Margaret’s. I added that we knew Cherie was a fan. They had worried slightly it might not be Cherie, so this was a clue it could be genuine.

In the end, they never used the photo of a topless Cherie. Probably scared of a total bollocking from Alastair Campbell, Blair’s Press officer.