I Had A Happy Childhood.

Failure, It Is Thought, Is What Sells, And What People Want To Hear And Read About. I Am Not So Sure.

I Used To Be Very Routine-based And The New Thing In My Life Is Not Having A Clear, Full-time Existence.

I Do Think It's Strange That I Get Associated With Iraq More Than The People Who Were Foreign Secretary Or Defence Secretary. It's Because Of My Closeness To Tony [blair], Which I Don't Regret At All. I Think That Was A Privilege.

So Here Is One Of My Theories On Happiness: We Cannot Know If We Have Lived A Truly Happy Life Until The Very End. This View Of Life And Death Was Reinforced By My Close Witnessing Of The Buildup To The Death Of Philip Gould. Philip Was Without Doubt My Closest Friend In Politics. When He Died, I Felt Like I Had Lost A Limb.

I Had A Happy Childhood.