Hello and welcome to O God What Now, your gin and tonic in troubled times. I'm Seth Teville.

Who is Chris Bryant? Is he a pillar of the establishment, an MP for a quarter of a century with a knighthood?

Or is he a radical who has broken barriers for much of his life?

The first former Anglican priests, the citizen MP for 200 years,

and a pioneer for gay rights who held the first ever civil partnership to be celebrated in the House of Commons in 2010.

He also wrote James and John, a true story of

prejudice and murder, which sheds light on the persecution of gay men. He had the dubious

honour of chairing Parliament's Standards and Privileges Committee during the scandal glory years,

if there is such a thing, when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, and he's now Minister of State

for both Data Protection and telecoms and creative

industries, arts and tourism. And he joins us in the studio now, having just published his memoir,

a life and a half, the unexpected making of a politician. Hello, Chris. Hello. Well, nice to see you.

I think I'm none of the above, or all of the above, all in one. I remember when I was a a vicar I wasn't really a

vicar if we're going to be precise I was a curate but a priest in the Church of England

nonetheless and somebody I was preparing kids for confirmation and I asked one of the kids

whether she was and good or bad and she said well I'm a bit streaky bad, and she said, well, I'm a bit streaky. So I think that's about it, really. I'm a bit streaky. That's not a bad summary. I mean, in the acknowledgments of the book, you also have a little summary where you thank the bishops, drag queens, MPs, actors and lovers, as well as all the people you've irritated. Is that the secret to your success?

There's quite a lot of people I've irritated, I think. Who knows, I might have irritated a couple more by the end of this.

I think, yes, I mean, it's been quite colourful. There's quite a lot of shenanigans in the book.

And I've tried to make it as profoundly honest as I can.

One of the things I say in the introduction is I tried not to make it a biography of Chris Bryant by Chris Bryant, because that would be a rather dull thing.

So it is more of a self-exploration in a sense.

And it was very weird when I was reading the audiobook because I'd finished writing the book before the general election.

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