My Saturday

Robert Peston ITV News political editor on football, fiction writing and French wine

6am I tend to wake up relatively early. I’ll write a few thousand words if it’s quiet.

7.30am I don’t eat breakfast, but need a decent cup of coffee. I’ve got a battered old espresso machine, so I’ll make myself a double-shot flat white with oat milk. Sometimes I’ll go to Caravan in King’s Cross or Guy Gold near Regent’s Park and get a coffee while taking Merlin, our dog, for an early morning walk. He’s a cross between a Bedlington terrier and a whippet and incredibly sweet but quite needy. 9.30am I’m a slightly obsessive active person. We live in Camden [Robert lives with his partner, the journalist Charlotte Edwardes, and her children], so I’ll cycle up various hills – Highgate, Muswell Hill, Alexandra Palace. One of the things I like about cycling is it helps get your thoughts in order. I wear baggy old trousers and an old T-shirt. I’m on record as being slightly scathing about Lycra. Midday I’ll change into jeans and a nice shirt and go to visit my mum Helen, who’s 91. She lives alone since my dad [Labour life peer and economist Maurice Peston] died in 2016, and is fiercely independent. We sometimes go to this amazing Turkish place, Lahmacino, where they make their own bread and pide – Turkish pizza. 3pm I’ve got a couple of season tickets to Arsenal and I’ll go with my son Max [with his late wife Siân Busby]. I’ve been going all my life. If I’m not watching football I’ll read or write. In lockdown, I thought I’d have a stab at writing a thriller, The Whistleblower. I love traditional thrillers by people like John Buchan and Dorothy L Sayers. Writing fiction is harder than journalism. 6pm I may get a gripping piece of information from a contact, so I have to turn it around, put it on Twitter, or broadcast from home or the studio. 8pm I love cooking: a paella, maybe a nice piece of beef or a chicken pie. Charlotte’s a great cook too. We might have friends over, or we go to The Wolseley in Mayfair. I’ll have a dry white French wine – a burgundy or pouilly-fuissé. 10pm I watch one of the Marvel Avengers films as a bit of escapism.

Midnight Bedtime. But if we’re out with friends it might be later.