At 16 I went to my first co-ed school and discovered sex. I was absolutely ecstatic and at it like a rabbit any chance I got. Unfortunately, I'd just discovered dope as well and was smoking too much and I screwed up my A levels. My advice to that boy would be, get as much sex as you can and don't smoke dope.

My parents are brilliant. I was very fortunate, I was quite rare among my friends, it was very secure. My mother’s Irish, my dad was born in India, he’s from a European / Indian mix – there’s a mongrel of races back there but we don’t have a trace of English blood in us.

I think I was probably too confrontational in my student politics. In those days students were very left wing, the hatred of Thatcher was so immense and it was conformist to be on the left and contrarian and radical to be a Thatcherite so I enjoyed that. I’m always the one who cracks the off colour joke in the wrong circumstances offending the in-laws, I do like to poke the lion. It doesn’t always work - I used to go bull-running in Pamplona with my brother and one year I had too much to drink the night before and I got thrown up in the air by the bull.

I was in investment banking in my 20s. I enjoyed being a typical City boy, shouting in the bar, snorting cocaine in the loo, taking Japanese businessmen to lap-dancing clubs, keeping a razor and toothpaste in my desk, buying a new shirt in Liverpool Street station to try to freshen up the morning after the night before. The store used to iron them for me in the shop before I put them on. For a time I was totally at one with that lifestyle.

When I was young I was absolutely obsessed with getting rich but I was even more interested in doing something interesting. So many of the best and brightest got pulled into working in investments banking but you get up at 5.30 in the morning and sit at your desk until 9 at night – you are a slave. If you’re going to do that, you have to make your money by your early 30s then get out. You only have one life, and the sand in the egg timer is running out every day.

I would advise my young self never to sue anyone richer than he is. It’s like dancing with an elephant – the dance stops when the elephant wants it to stop. I got caught up in the most horrendous litigation, lots of allegations flying around, big fall out with the backer. He bought a yacht around that time -  I remember, I asked him if he’d called it The Paul. 

I would have preferred for Guido Fawkes to remain anonymous. I've done a bit of a victory lap around the broadcast studios this week and I did the same when I got rid of Peter Hain, but generally I don't like going on TV - you just become another talking head. And it takes away from the mystique. 

I hope I do as good a job bringing up my kids as my father did, giving them that feeling of confidence. My father gave me the idea that I could be Pope or prime minister. I’ve given him a few grey hairs. I think I thought his life was a bit boring, he was obsessed with security. I associated security with doing nothing, not living life.