Sarah Brown delights audience with surprise special guest

Sarah was at the Book Festival to discuss her autobiography, Behind the Black Door, which reveals details of life behind the scenes at number ten Downing Street. She has been scheduled to appear at the Festival since June, but the sold-out audience was completely unaware that Mr Brown would be joining her in the event.

The couple shared stories of their life at number ten with Festival Director Nick Barley, with Sarah admitting that, at times, living in the public eye felt like being ‘one step away from your greatest mistake’. She noted that she never confused her role as the wife of the Prime Minister with that of political advisor, saying that her views were equal to those of any other citizen.

After joining his wife on stage Gordon Brown reflected on the recent phone hacking scandal saying that for many years ‘journalists have been marching with members of the criminal underworld’ and he accused some newspapers of unfairly challenging the motives of politicians instead of focussing on their actions, adding that the ‘public are much wiser than the newspapers’.

Sarah Brown said that whilst writing her book she did share sections of it with her husband before it was published, but when asked by a member of the audience if he had vetoed any of the content she replied ‘not one bit’.