Breaking the Code

A former Oxford scholar and President of the Oxford Union, Gyles Brandreth worked in theatre, television and publishing before becoming the Member of Parliament for the City of Chester and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major's government in the 1990s. Now the Chancellor of the University of Chester, the founder of the Poetry Together project, an ambassador for the Royal Commonwealth Society and a trustee of The Queen's Reading Room, his many books include a series of Victorian murder mysteries (featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle as his detectives), a bestselling memoir, Odd Boy Out, and the No. 1 bestseller Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. Probably best known for his appearances on This Morning, The One Show, QI and Celebrity Gogglebox and as a regular on Radio 4's Just a Minute, his podcasts include Rosebud, featuring the first memories of famous people, Something Rhymes with Purple with Susie Dent, and the Commonwealth Poetry Podcast, which he co-hosts with his politician daughter, Aphra Brandreth. He has appeared on stage in Hamlet, Twelfth Night and The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as in his award-winning one-man show throughout the country and, with Dame Judi Dench, at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, the London Palladium and the Royal Albert Hall. He is married to writer and publisher Michele Brown and has three children, seven grandchildren and a cat called Nala.