ITV’s political editor on coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder, belatedly publishing his first novel, and why he longs for a lost England
ITV’s political editor Robert Peston, 62, began his career as a print journalist and has broken a string of stories, including the Northern Rock bailout in 2007, when he was the BBC’s business editor. His debut novel, a slickly paced thriller titled The Whistleblower, is set in London in 1997 as Labour’s modernising new leader prepares to sweep the party to power in a general election. Enter political reporter Gil Peck, a flawed hero who stumbles upon the scoop of a lifetime after his high-powered civil servant sister is killed in a traffic accident.
This is your first published novel. Is it the first you’ve written?
In my 20s, I wrote three-quarters of a thriller about a female detective with extraordinary powers. I didn’t feel it was there really but I should have finished it because it wasn’t a million miles from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo conceit.
The Whistleblower by Robert Peston is published by Zeffre in paperback on 7 July (£8.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
