“Always carry a handkerchief. Especially in television studios.” — Ann Widdecombe

Cats are ideal for politicians. I had two when I arrived at Westminster, Sooty and Sweep, who had come with a flat I had bought six years earlier in Fulham from someone who was about to go abroad. There was a better offer ahead of me but she took mine because I would take the cats.

I am not normally a fan of organised tours: few public figures are, feeling themselves objects of constant curiosity.

The first visit I made to Australia was in 1996 when I was the prisons' minister and was looking at other countries' penal systems.

After 23 years closeted at Westminster, where often all you can see out of the windows are other parliamentary buildings, I appreciate space, and I retired to Dartmoor to find it.