FORMER

Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has been speaking of a secret wish that he had been a 16th-century explorer. Talking to Antiques Trade Gazette about his collection of Victoria Crosses (the biggest in the world), he was asked what he would have been if he hadn’t gone into business and politics. he replied: ‘I am naturally inquisitive, energetic and outgoing. I would love to have been an explorer. If I had lived nearly 500 years ago, I can imagine myself sailing around the world on behalf of elizabeth I and trying to discover and explore uninhabited areas of the world on behalf of Queen and country.’