Gyles Brandreth

Why does one think, I want to be a writer, age 12?

So this is after your high school.

What are the universities you go to?

What was the magazine called?

So this is a rush into what actually has become first your career and then your life, right?

But before we go with you to New York, as a teenage boy, loving writing, wanting to be in magazines, did you have romantic interests?

Do you remember your first crush?

You're telling me that you were quite successful with the ladies as a teenager.

No, no, no.

But this sounds like... I had really nice girlfriends.

You had nice girlfriends, but this is a slightly traumatic experience.

The canoe thing?

Yeah, you'd done something to... No, it was traumatic.

Yeah, okay, very good.

This isn't him just speaking.

You wouldn't have allowed that as a headline, that you were beaten over the head?

I'd probably stop her at a certain point.

She caught me off guard.

But the point is this.

This guy, who's had just average success with the ladies, is a nice guy, is being hit over the head, maybe not beaten repeatedly, hit over the head by a girl.