Under the microscope
CAN YOU RUN UP THE STAIRS?
NOT any more, but I keep active. Every day my wife Merita and I walk for up to 20 minutes in the park.
GET YOUR FIVE A DAY?
MY DIET has never been healthier — because of lockdown, I can’t eat out or even go to the pub.
POP ANY PILLS?
I TAKE multivitamins, pills for blood pressure and cholesterol, and a tiny pill called propranolol for a slight neurological tremor. I think I inherited it from my mother who had difficulty drinking a cup of tea as her hand shook.
EVER DIETED?
NO, BUT maybe I should have. I became a bit overweight as an MP, grazing in the members’ tea room. I’m 5ft 11in, but not sure what I weigh, though my belt is now easier to tighten.
ANY VICES?
I SMOKED a few cigarettes when reporting on the Balkan wars in the 1990s — to steady the nerves. I enjoy Chilean white wine a few times a week and have a glass of scotch before bed.
HOW HAVE YOU COPED IN LOCKDOWN?
I FOUND time goes incredibly fast the less you do. The sad thing is not being able to see my daughters Melissa, who lives in Paris as a CNN correspondent, and Catherine, who works in admin at the University of Exeter.
HAD ANYTHING REMOVED?
I’VE had shrapnel removed, and both hips replaced when I was an MP.
WORST ILLNESS/INJURY?
I HAD a bad fall two years ago at Gatwick. I was carrying a suitcase in each hand and fell over so there was nothing to break my fall except my face. The surgeons at St George’s Hospital in London put me back together. I now have four metal plates in my mouth and 16 screws. When I was 11 or 12 I had measles and pneumonia, which was so serious prayers were said for me in the local church.
COPE WELL WITH PAIN?
I AM a total coward and not keen on pain. In 1992 I was hurt by a mortar bomb in Sarajevo. I was tended to by a French team in a UN field hospital, but when I came out my passport and money had disappeared, so I was mortared by the Serbs and robbed by the French on the same day.
HANGOVER CURE? MY CURE is — time! WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE?
BIZARRELY I have frequent nightmares — about losing my bags at Heathrow or sitting in the House of Commons.
LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?
NO BUT I am deeply aware that every day passed is a day gained. I am as old as my father was when we lost him and I have lost both my sisters in the past two years, so I am determined to enjoy every moment.
Martin’s new book, War and Peacekeeping, is published by Oneworld (£20).