It's not as if I've ever been to prison or been close to going to prison. The closest I've got is knowing people who have been in jail - after all, I was a member of Parliament - and visiting them there during their sentence.

I have Spanish ancestry and, indeed, speak the language, up to a point.

You never quite know what you do in life that leaves a seed behind that grows into an oak tree.

Music turns the world upside down.

What's extraordinary about Cobra Mist, and so much of what went on at Orford, was that the public were completely oblivious to it.

Travelling the railways of Europe with a century-old guidebook can be disconcerting: fares, food, and drink seem shockingly expensive compared with what they were; trains and paddle-steamers run to unexpected timetables (assuming they're still running at all); and not only states but whole empires have been wiped from the map.

Personal responsibility matters.

I do rather rejoice when people come up to talk to me about railways.

I look back on my schooldays with a warm glow of nostalgia.