Martin Sixsmith - Salisbury City Hall

WHEN journalist Martin Sixsmith signed a gagging order forbidding him to write and broadcast details of his time as a civil servant working at the heart of government, he was left with no option but to create a work of fiction.

And so it was that he set about writing the aptly named "Spin", a political satire that legal experts warned could lead to libel writs - except most current politicians wouldn't want to be associated with any of the characters in the book.

Mr Sixsmith was famously at the centre of the Stephen Byers and Jo Moore political scandal.

It was interesting to hear him discuss his time as a foreign correspondent interviewing Yeltsin and Clinton - but everyone at the Salisbury Playhouse studio really wanted to know more about the Byers/Moore fiasco.

"I was coming back from the opticians when I heard Stephen Byers announce he had accepted the resignations of Jo Moore and Martin Sixsmith - and I thought that's funny, I don't recall resigning," he said.

He stood his ground and won the day with a formal apology, compensation and the resignation of Stephen Byers.

A second book is now under way - looking at corruption between governments in the East and West.