Arriving in Oxford from Eton (1983). Boris had 3 aims: to get a First-class degree, find a wife and become Union president. The Union was a kind of teenage 'House of Parliament' where you won debates by not boring the audience with detail.

Almost all aspiring Tory politicians passed through the Union. Theresa May never won the presidency, disadvantaged by her gender and with no rhetorical gifts. But in 1979 her future husband Philip did.

Boris's charisma even then was off the charts, you couldn’t measure it: so funny, warm, charming, self-deprecating. His style was to win debates with jokes and rhetoric and by 'never letting the truth get in the way of a good story' (Mark Twain).