Gyles Brandreth – Keynote Speaker

A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End.

A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute and Wordaholics to QI and Have I Got News for You), an acclaimed interviewer (principally for the Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, he has published two volumes of diaries: Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries and Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime.

He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, and a series of Victorian detective stories, The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, now published in twenty-two countries around the world. His latest Sunday Times best-seller – No 1 on Amazon – is The 7 Secrets of Happiness. His one-man show, Looking for happiness, won multiple five star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and is playing at the Leicester Square Theatre in London from 29 April 2014.

As a performer, Brandreth has been seen in the West End in Zipp! One hundred musicals for less than the price of one at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain inTwelfth Night: The Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2011-12 he appeared as Lady Bracknell in a new musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Brandreth has featured on This Is Your Life and Desert Island Discs and is a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association. He has also been London correspondent for “Up to the Minute” on CBS News and his books published in the USA include the New York Times best-seller, The Joy of Lex, as well as The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries (Simon & Schuster) and The 7 Secrets of Happiness (Open Road Media).