Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary

edition of The Spectator and this week I'm very pleased to welcome the journalist Marie Lecomte,

whose new book is called Honourable Misfits and it's a brief history of Britain's weirdest, unluckiest and most

outrageous MPs. Marie, welcome. I want to start by saying, you know, with a name like that,

you don't hail from these shores and yet you write a great deal about British politics,

British politicians and Westminster. How does a nice French

Moroccan girl like you come to be so fascinated by British politics? That is a very good question.

It's actually, so I kind of wish there was a sort of simple and also actually, you know, ironically

honourable answer to give to that. But I think that very long

story short went, so I came to this country to a degree and didn't have much of an interest in politics

because I was 17. And then when I was 18, at the end of my first year, I ended up going to some

house party with some boy I was hoping to snog, who then basically just went off for some other girl, which happens. I didn't know how to get home boy I was hoping to snog who then basically just went off for some of the girl

which happens I didn't know how to get home because I was still quite new to London and I didn't

know anyone else there and I realised the telly was on and it turns out it was actually the night of

the election the 2010 election so I kind of sat by the telly you hadn't at the time clocked that it was the election.

I hadn't, again, I was 18.

I did not care.

And yeah, and I basically just went to sit by the telly and just got really, really into it.

And so ended up basically becoming the political correspondent of the House Party,

where I just would just be like, oh, you know, this new seed got announced.

And yet, that was Jenny Ken who had the start of some, yeah, weird and unexpected so far lifelong passion.

Goodness.

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