Michael Dobbs was born in the same hour as Prince Charles. It doesn't seem to have done him too much harm. In the years since then he has become a doctor of philosophy, a senior adviser to both Margaret Thatcher and John Major, a Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, a regular presenter of BBC TV's Despatch Box and a columnist for the Mail on Sunday. In his spare time he has written books ranging from the bestselling House of Cards trilogy that became a hugely popular TV series to his recent brilliant series of historical novels about the life of Winston Churchill. He tries to live quietly with his wife and four sons near a pub and a church in Wiltshire.