A bit of self-indulgence if I may. It dawned on me the other day that it's 20 years since this was published...

What? You haven't read it? Well, if you're not *very* interested by Conservative Party history then I don't recommend it...

I only wrote it because @matthew_elliott spotted an advert in the Spectator. The Bow Group was approaching its 50th anniversary and wanted someone to write its history...

Matthew said to me, "You've been saying you want to write a book" (I have no recollection of this but that's what he always says) "Go on, here's your chance". So I submitted my CV (about the only time it has ever got me a job). There was an interview and I got the job...

At the time there weren't many histories of think tanks. But @cockettrichard had written a brilliant one. In fact, if you read anything, his Thinking The Unthinkable is my recommendation. And that gave me an idea about how it could be done...

I had a very happy time interviewing old, and not so old, politicians about their youth. It was great fun. Michael Howard and Peter Lilley I remember giving me lots of time...

(Ed: the Bow Group was a think tank set up by young Tories who wanted (a) to change the impression that their party didn't really do thinking and, more importantly (b) give them a way to cllimb the greasy pole. No one over 35 could hold office - at least at that point)...

I was supposed to deliver a short pamphlet six months later. Instead I spent two years and produced a book of 90k words. Which @IainDale then agreed to publish...

The Group's heyday was in the late 50s to mid-70s. Harold Macmillan latched onto them when they launched a magazine when he was minister for housing. Ideas like Canary Wharf were born there...

The launch, in February 2001, was fun. During my research I had managed to track down Gilvrie Lock, who had caused quite a stir by agreeing to model for one of the covers, in December 1967. Gilvrie came to the party.

There, Norman Lamont buttonholed me. "Why didn't you interview me?" he asked. I enjoyed telling him that I had tried to secure a meeting with his secretary, who had told me, "He doesn't remember much from that time."

I had researched and wrote the whole thing after work, thanks significantly to my mum (who isn't on here but I suspect reads my tweets - Hello Mum) who sorted the Bow Group's newspaper cutting "library", which arrived like a bran tub at a fete, in a post office grey mailbag...

I say all this, partly to thank Matthew for giving me a push, which later led in a completely different direction, and partly to encourage anyone who is thinking of writing a book. Go for it. Who knows where it will lead.

Final thought: if you want to find out which future Home Secretary parked on a double yellow line in order to deliver a speaker to a meeting on time, well, you'll just have to read the book.