A Breakfast with Michael Portillo

Michael Portillo is coming to P&J Live on Thursday 26 November for a breakfast session that's part of the Ultimate Masterclass Festival. It's an early one, starting at 7:30am, so you'll be in and out before the proper working day has even kicked in.

If you only know him from the telly, you've only got half the story. Portillo has lived one of the more varied lives in British public life, and he's spent a good chunk of it in the thick of politics. The son of a Spanish refugee, he rose to become one of the leading political figures of his generation, serving in Margaret Thatcher's and John Major's governments for eleven years. He held three Cabinet posts, including Secretary of State for Defence, before suffering one of the most famous election defeats in British political history at the 1997 general election. He's as well known for that exit as he was for the climb up.

After that, he reinvented himself as a broadcaster. You'll recognise him from his political sparring with Diane Abbott and Andrew Neil, and from his railway series Great British Railway Journeys, which has become a bit of a staple for anyone with a soft spot for trains. He attended Harrow County grammar school and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history — a subject that clearly stayed with him, whether he's talking about the corridors of power or the lines of the old rail network.

The breakfast is part of the Ultimate Masterclass Festival, delivered in partnership with Boskalis Subsea Services, a series of business masterclasses designed to enlighten and empower anyone looking for business or personal growth. Tickets were £50.40, though they're now sold out. It starts at 7:30am on 26 November at P&J Live.