Widdershins

In the interests of political and gender balance, the alumnus to be proud of No. 108 is a Tory alumna, best known for her role in the far-from-accidental demise of a would-be prime minister.

Michael Howard's nemesis Ann Widdecombe was reported in the newspapers last weekend as a woman who lives without a television, since she sees no reason to pay for the BBC to produce programmes about "irregular living".

In the free time thus generated, she pursues hobbies which include "researching Charles II's escape". Educated at a convent in Bath, at the University of Birmingham and at Lady Margaret Hall Oxford, she had an uncharacteristic brush with some irregular living when, from 1975 to 1987, she worked as an administrator at the University of London.