Conservative life peer Baroness Trumpington on cracking codes and behaving badly - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Celebrity Conservative life peer Baroness Trumpington on cracking codes and behaving badly By You Magazine - January 11, 2018 Conservative life peer Baroness Trumpington My husband Alan chose this brooch for me in Persia in the 1970s. At customs, he said, ‘I have a trinket.’ Trinket is not a word you would use when describing an emerald and diamond brooch, but the customs people said, ‘Go on through, we’re not interested.’ I didn’t exactly steal this ashtray after a lunch at the Jockey Club. I said, ‘Please could I have this?’ and put it in my pocket as I said it. I love racing and I was smoking 80 cigarettes a day, so it was useful, but I was terribly embarrassed afterwards and gave it back. Later they gave it to me as a present, which I thought was sweet. My father Arthur left me the corner cupboard in his flat – it was full of all my grandmother’s things, including these 18th-century Meissen figurines. There was a terrible fire in my flat and I lost a lot, but these survived. I was a cipher clerk at Bletchley Park, translating German naval messages during the Second World War. I was pleased to receive the Bletchley medal in 2009 when we were finally recognised. Before then, there had been a code of silence. I like antique furniture, but I’m proud of my granddaughter Gigi [Barker, the furniture designer] who made this delightful wooden stool. It lives with me in my bedroom. My husband Alan was headmaster at The Leys School in Cambridge from 1958 to 1975. Picasso’s son Claude [then aged 17], who was staying with mutual friends, spent a lot of time with me and helped in the kitchen. I was fond of him and he made me this collage. I thought, ‘What do you give your rich friends when you haven’t any money?’ I decided to make needlepoint cushions. I made this one, saying ‘Chacun à son Gout’ [meaning ‘each to their own’], for my son Adam’s late godfather Michael (who had gout). I won this Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards in 2014. I smoked cigarettes from the age of 12 in the pigsty because I didn’t want my mother to find out. I gave them up, but I still have the odd cigar. When I was the Mayor of Cambridge, I turned the space in front of the town hall from a car park back into a market square. I bought this little eagle from one of the market stalls and gilded it. It always reminds me of happy country people who got their market back and a lot of very cross car drivers. I have three ministerial boxes from the House of Lords. This one is for being a government whip. I bought them as mementos and had to pay quite a lot of money for them. I had a wonderful time working for Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Baroness Trumpington’s autobiography, Coming Up Trumps, is published by Pan Books, price £8.99. To order a copy for £7.19 (a 20 per cent discount) until 21 January, visit you-bookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640; p&p is free on orders over £15 RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR 50 of the best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time Shirley Ballas ‘ Strictly gave me back my hope’ Davina McCall discusses how men can help women going through the menopause Popular in Celebrity TV chef Gino D Acampo on Sardinia Sophia Loren and scary salads May 25, 2017 The Evergreen Goddess Exercise guru Diana Moran on looking fit and July 10, 2017 More more Julianne Moore November 13, 2017 Author Jill Mansell on designer notebooks commissioning art and the family January 16, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES Kelly Hoppen on vodka vintage finds and being a April 4, 2018 ‘ I have no regrets’ Millie Mackintosh on divorce debt and reuniting May 20, 2018 EMOTIONAL TIES TV presenter and tennis player Annabel Croft shares her July 1, 2018 Stella Parton ‘ Dolly and I have always been close’ August 12, 2018 Anna Friel on getting jeered in the street shared parenting with September 23, 2018 Queen of primetime Charlotte Riley on juggling rising stardom with pregnancy October 21, 2018 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved