I look back and I think 'how did we get through that? How did we
cope?' I never really had a day off, never ever had an uninterrupted
holiday. The weekend when The Mirror did Jack Straw's son, I can
remember being on a ride at Euro Disney on the phone to Jack and he
could hear kids screaming. I remember one of my kids saying 'are you
ever gonna get off that phone?' Or the situation with Robin Cook, it
was the start of our holiday and the whole drive down through France,
kids in the back, I'm talking to Robin, I'm talking to the papers, I'm
talking to Tony, trying to sort it all out. We went on holiday to Rome
a few months ago for a long weekend and the phone range three maybe
four times. Part of me said 'humpf', part of me said 'amazing! Time
off!'" - on his job as special advisor to Tony Blair