His book, A Lust for Window Sills - a guide to British Buildings from Portcullis to Pebble-Dash, was published last year by Little, Brown.

He has written two other books - Amo, Amas, Amat and All That - How to Become a Latin Lover [2006] and My Brief Career - the trials of a junior lawyer [2004].

He is also a contributing editor at Reader's Digest, and writes for the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, Sunday Telegraph, New Statesman, Spectator, Daily Mail and Country Life.