Hello, you're listening to the New Statesman podcast. Steven and Anosh are both away on holiday

this week, so while the cats away, the mice will play, I'm joined by a very special guest,

political journalist, best selling author and beloved Twitter personality.

Marie LeCant, welcome to the New Statesman podcast.

Thanks for having me. I didn't believe I'm a best seller, best selling author, rather,

but I am happy to pretend.

Well, I'm so pleased to have you on today. We're in the middle of recess. Westminster is kind

of quiet. It's a good time, I suppose, to think about the way Westminster works, which

you're so good at, so embedded in. I kind of wanted to begin, I want to come on to the

most recent book and your previous book, but I kind of wanted to begin just by talking

to you for people who don't know you so well. They're clearly not on Twitter, in that case.

For the people who don't know you so well, I'm really interested by your journey into

Westminster politics, and what made you fall in love with it, because my impression

is really that you totally adore this world of Westminster, or maybe you don't, kind

of what brought you into it.

The short version is, obviously, I grew up in France. I came to the UK to study journalism

when I was 17, did not really have an interest in politics. Slightly embarrassingly, my way

into politics, I've thought about it before, I think I need to come up with the lie,

basically, because the real story is actually quite embarrassing. But in 2010, which was

the end of my first year at university, I went and got very drunk with my friends as

one does at the end of Freshers Year, and ended up going to this party with a boy I really

fancied and the hope of snogging him. And my friends had gone home by that point, and

...