This is my office at our home near Marble Arch. We moved here from Downing Street in June 2007. I have vast numbers of pictures from our life at No 10, so I decided to stick up as many as I could.
1. I’m proud of my two computers. In 1990 I was the first chair of the Bar IT committee. I taught myself to use WordPerfect and I do my own typing. The idea is that I can have a working opinion document on one side and a law report or legal textbook or the chambers intranet on the other, and I link up between the two.
2. This is an early picture of us in Hong Kong when Tony was a junior politician. We’d gone out on a boat and Tony, being typically British, got badly burnt legs. The next day we were invited to tour a printer factory and Tony’s legs were so painful that he couldn’t stand still and kept hopping from foot to foot. I was fascinated by this factory and Tony kept saying to me, “Stop asking questions, we’ve got to keep moving.” I think the Chinese found us very odd.
3. This is me with Lyudmila Putin [wife of the then Russian president] at the G8 summit in St Petersburg. She’s showing me how to paint a traditional cup. We became firm friends and when she came over to London I realised that what she really wanted to do was go shopping, so we bonded in our underwear in Burberry.
4. My grandfather was a merchant seaman and one of my regrets is that I never got the chance to launch a Royal Navy ship. But I did launch P&O’s Pride of Hull ferry in 2001 and this plate commemorates it. It was a fantastic day. I’ve also opened a women’s hospital in Hull and they throw a fantastic party there!
5. Leo decorated the clock on the wall for me and Tony. It says, “Happy 25th anniversary, love Leo.” We’ll be married 30 years next March.
6. I’ve got a brass cast of Leo’s feet. You can do these things when they’re babies.
7. I drink at least a litre and a half of water a day. I always bring my own bottle to court. Otherwise you get the tap water in the carafes, and I know the ushers change it everyday, but even so it looks a bit dusty.
Cherie Blair’s Speaking for Myself is out in paperback, Sphere, £7.99
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