To the Political Book Awards at the Imax, hosted by Gyles Brandreth. The former MP wittered on about his sexual fantasies over the Queen, Princess Michael of Kent and Margaret Thatcher, and continued to stretch the definition of bad taste when he joked about mistaking BBC presenter Clare Balding for Angela Merkel.
The guests’ jokes were better. Michael Dobbs received a special award for political writing. Once a Downing Street head of staff, but in the past 20 years better known for his books, such as House of Cards, Dobbs joked: “I once used to write political manifestos, now I just do fiction.”
Lord Ashcroft, who had put up the money for the prizes, said he hoped he might win the £10,000 award himself in 2016. “That’s when the book I’m writing about David Cameron will be published.”
