Alan Johnson
Alan Johnson was an MP for 20 years and served as Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Health for the Labour Governments of Blair and Brown. After leaving the Cabinet, he wrote his first memoir, This Boy, which was an instant success, and followed that up with two more volumes of memoirs, Please, Mister Postman and The Long and Winding Road. This year he has published his first novel, The Late Train to Gipsy Hill.
Our fun chat with Alan covers why he always wanted to be a writer (and rock musician - blame The Beatles for both), how he kept writing during his political career, and why fiction has been his goal from the start. We talk about the difference in writing memoirs and fiction, hear what inspired The Late Train to Gipsy Hill, and also talk about his experience as a contestant on The Masked Singer!