Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home with me Alan Tolhurst.

This week, we're marking on 150th episode of the show with a special interview recorded with

the former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine. At 91, a Conservative peer is still one of the

big beasts of British politics, despite leaving

Parliament in 2001, and retiring to Thenford House in Northamptonshire and its 400-acre estate,

but is this month releasing a new memoir about the second part of his career as an advisor to David Cameron,

and reflecting further on his time in Margaret Thatcher and John Major's cabinets.

From acorns to oaks, contrast his work to restore the woodland at its

family's arboretum with his time trying to pursue urban regeneration and increasing Britain's

regional growth. We spoke about his long career, championing devolution, what Labour needs to do to get

the economy moving again, and how his party rebuilds after last year's devastating defeat.

So, Lord Heslthine, you wrote your firsteltine, you wrote your first autobiography, Life in the Jungle, back in 2000.

What made you want to write another?

I started writing another, actually very shortly after the publication of Life in the Jungle,

because I realized that as time had gone on, it was possible to look back on the things I'd

done and sort of update to see whether they'd actually been of any value.

Right, okay.

And so I started doing that.

And then when David Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party, he invited me to become involved.

And I found myself back in the cover doors of power.

So I postponed the book that I'd started work on.

Yeah.

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