Quotes from Gyles Brandreth

I was in the debating society at school, I was the president of the Oxford Union, and then I became an MP in the Nineties.

And the purpose of small talk is not to be controversial, clever or even interesting. It's simply to fill the silent void with a small gesture of common humanity. It's a spoken smile, a verbal handshake.

I'd known the Duke of Edinburgh over a period of 40 years, so I'd long been accustomed to his sense of humor.

We loved the line 'I'm a luxury... few can afford.' It still makes me smile. It's a jumper for people with a sense of style and a sense of humor.

To me Prince Philip was a hero and a role model - and a friend.

Prince Philip was a funny man who liked to laugh and make others laugh.

Prince Philip is very contrary. He challenges everything.

Prince Philip is conscious of his place in the heritage of the Royal Family.

They're supposed to cure everything. Want a baby? Have a Brandreth pill. Don't want a baby? Have a Brandreth pill.

If God had meant us to go metric, why did he give Christ twelve apostles?

The Queen is frequently on her own, walking the dogs, riding her horses, playing patience, completing a jigsaw, sorting her photograph albums, watching television, phoning friends, doing the Telegraph crossword. Is she neglected? Is she suffering? Or does she simply understand her man?

Quite out of proportion to the size of the country, British children's writers swept the world in the 20th century. We should celebrate them.

For centuries in Britain, the small-talk standby has been the weather.

What happened between the sheets on the night of the royal wedding I cannot tell you. I was not there.

Private weddings are becoming something of a family tradition. My daughter Saethryd married her husband Jason at Marylebone Register Office in 2005 while my wife and I had a lunch at Pizza Express.

The biggest and loudest weddings don't always produce the happiest marriages.

Greyfriars School is like Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter stories and the whole world of magic is the world of J.M.Barrie.

The buffoon is a product of the woolly jumpers in the 1980s on 'TV:am.' It was a costume and I loved earning money before breakfast, but 9 A. M. came and I then took off the woolly jumpers.

When I was 11, at prep school, I was starring in the school play, editing the school magazine and standing as Conservative candidate for the 1959 mock election.

I said to my wife, Michele, 'What would you like for Christmas? Anything you want, darling, anything in our means.' She said she would like me to be the weight I was when we married. So I will not gorge myself.

I thought I would be Prime Minister.

I have been a print journalist.

I was lucky enough to know Prince Philip in his prime - the most dynamic man I have ever met. And I was privileged to know him almost to the end.

I'm grateful for laughter of any kind, but it can be off-putting if one person is laughing at a different time or in a different way from the rest of the audience.