My London: Martin Bell

Where do you live and why? Hampstead Garden Suburb, because it's as near to the countryside as you can get in London. In 1974 I bought a wonderful oak tree and the very small cottage that came with it.

If money were no object, where would you like to live in London? I'm happy where I am.

Are you a member of any club? The House of Commons - the best club in town. I don't need any other.

What was the last book you bought? The Irish Guards in the Great War - a little-known masterpiece by Rudyard Kipling. Apart from John Le Carr?, I read very little fiction. I read military histories, especially recent stuff on wars I've been involved in. I like to see other people's perspectives on them.

Do you have a local restaurant? Le Gaffe in Hampstead.

Where would you most like to spend a 'lost weekend' in London? I'd stay somewhere with a bit of character and history, say the Savoy because of the Gilbert and Sullivan connection. It was built on The Mikado's profits.

What keeps you awake at night? There was a time when the silence did. I'd been working in the war zones in Sarajevo and when I came back home the silence kept me awake.

Who would you most like to get stuck in a London Eye pod with? Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic. I've never met him; I'd love to. He's a man of great courage and principle. In the Seventies and Eighties he could have reached an accommodation with the authorities, but he chose to go to prison. That's remarkably courageous.

When and where did you last get drunk? I never get drunk - I fall ill before I can get to that stage.

When was the last time you went to a nightclub? During the Bosnian war, in the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo. Its club had been turned into a restaurant. It was underground, and the only safe place to be. I think being in a nightclub at my age is perfectly ridiculous.

What don't you leave London without? My briefcase. When I became an MP I had to get a briefcase - I'd never needed one before. And an umbrella.

What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done? When I was the BBC's North America correspondent, I had to accost a half-sister of a minor member of the Royal Family whose father was alleged to have fought for the Nazis, and the woman was shielded from my questions by her husband who was dying of cancer. That was as bad as it gets.

When did you last lose your temper? I don't do anger.

Where did you last blow £500 and what was it on? I gave £500 to the boss of Le Gaffe. Bernado Stella is a playwright, he's putting on a play here in October, he needs angels and I'm his angel.

What piece of advice would you give a London tourist? Lighten up. Most of the tourists I see look so miserable.

What was the last conversation you had with a London cabbie? It was yesterday. Like many people, he was interested in what I make of the change from journalist to MP. And because I don't belong to a party, people are not automatically hostile towards me.

What's the best thing you can do in London without paying for it? Changing of the Guard - a little bit of history.

What's the most overrated thing in London? The South Bank Centre - it's hideous. Ironically, my political career began there. I was opening an exhibition of Bosnian war photographs taken by Tom Stoddart and I was asked if I would stand as an MP.

What do you miss most when you're out of London? The warmth and friendliness of people, being surrounded by history, and pubs.

What makes you proud to be a Londoner? The city's history and sense of identity.

What makes you embarrassed to be a Londoner? Crime. People should be able to walk about without fear of being mugged. And the Underground.

Have you ever been a victim of violence in London? My house was burgled once when I was in Bosnia. I've never been mugged - I've led a charmed life.

What is the most expensive meal you've had in London and who did you eat with? I saw in the new millennium in this very seat. We had ten guests. But then, apart from the House of Commons, I wouldn't admit to eating anywhere else but here - except on Mondays when it's closed.

Which shop could you not live without? Airey & Wheeler in Savile Row who make my white suits. When I first covered the wars in Africa in the Sixties and Seventies, I went through a safari-shirt phase. I happened to have two white suits in Croatia in 1991, and I survived that war with my lucky suits, so now I wear them in other hazardous surroundings - the House of Commons, for example.

What is your favourite view? Parliament Hill Fields. Or from St Thomas's Hospital, because it is the only view of Westminster that doesn't include St Thomas's, which is so ugly.

What and where is your favourite painting or work of art? The only art I like is representational. I am quite happy to spend an afternoon with Turners, Constables, Gainsboroughs, but not daubs.

Where in London would you have your ashes scattered? I want to be buried in Suffolk.

If your house were on fire, which three things would you rescue? Photographs, the painting of my father and as many of my father's books as I could carry - he was a prolific author.

Martin Bell's An Accidental MP (Viking, £16.99) is out now