Sarah Brown: I missed having my own voice

As she interviews her husband live in London this week, former first lady Sarah Brown tells Catherine Deveney about life after No 10 and her new friend Naomi Campbell
Looking to the future: Sarah Brown
Jo Hanley

In the picturesque village of North Queensferry, which nestles in the shadow of the iconic Forth Road Bridge, a car halts abruptly and a voice calling my name drifts up the steep hill. The voice has warmth, an unpretentious clarity, like the voice of a friend — which is confusing because it is unfamiliar.

Sarah Brown, wife of Gordon and former first lady of Downing Street, is offering a lift to the village café where we are due to meet. Brown’s voice is important; hard fought for. As a PR executive, she was skilful at organising events where everyone else spoke but she stayed silent. “Then it dawned on me that I was missing an opportunity for myself,” she explains over coffee. “There were things I wanted to say, causes I wanted to back. The public profile you have in No 10 is a huge opportunity to do something good.”

Despite literally fainting with nerves at her first public speech, Brown painstakingly forged a confident voice, eventually addressing diverse audiences from the United Nations to the Bafta Television Awards. But tomorrow she has an unusual gig: interviewing her husband at the Southbank Centre about his autobiography. She is taking her interviewing role as seriously as her wifely one, speculating on her interviewee’s potential candour. “You never know,” she muses as we sit in the tight corner of a coffee shop, “he might be more open, more candid, more comfortable, more trusting of the interviewer… or he might not.” One imagines breakfast will be interesting in the Brown household if he isn’t.

Gordon will focus on Britain’s place in Europe. “But I want to ask some of the big global economy questions that I know he spends his normal week addressing. I’d also like to ask about the Labour Party. I want to know his take on anti-Semitism. I’d like to know his take on where our future is.”

She will, she admits, tip him off about those issues. “I’ll say, I want to know about these things and I don’t want you to shy away from answering.”

There is something refreshing about Brown’s commitment, the openness to a “set-to” rather than a “set-up”. You sense she won’t short-change her audience.

Being the wife of the PM isn’t a job. It’s not even like being First Lady of France or the US. You can do as much or as little as you like, and I would absolutely defend anyone’s right to — Denis Thatcher-style — go and play golf

Her life is split between Fife, where she lives with Gordon and her two sons, John and Fraser, and London. The capital houses her office at Theirworld, an international charity she and some friends started 15 years ago. Campaigning gave her an important focus. “Being the wife of the PM isn’t a job. It’s not even like being First Lady of France or the US. You can do as much or as little as you like, and I would absolutely defend anyone’s right to — Denis Thatcher-style — go and play golf.””

Brown has thrown herself into global issues: mainly education for children, particularly girls and refugees, including trouble-torn areas like Syria. She tackles child labour, child-trafficking and child marriage, and makes podcasts called Better Angels with the inspirational figures she meets. Make no mistake: gentle Sarah is a woman of intent. Asked if she describes herself as “feminist” despite the sometimes derogatory use of the word, she replies with a certain steel that she was “a feminist before, during and after…”

Two things are immediately apparent. The first is how much she cares. “We need to support people at the times they are most vulnerable. Globally, you see people facing the most tremendous challenges. If we don’t take action, how else does it happen?” The second is her determination. “You can absolutely have a go at something that feels impossible but if you keep working at it, it becomes more probable. Nothing that has ever happened to me in my life has shown that to be wrong.”

Yet she and Gordon have faced huge personal challenges. “That’s true,” she agrees. “Gordon nearly lost his sight as a teenager and we lost our first child, which was the greatest heartbreak for us.” But difficulties have been used as the catalyst for improvement. Theirworld was set up shortly after the death of their baby, Jennifer, along with the Jennifer Brown Research Lab at Edinburgh University, which carries out research into premature birth.

Grief is a skin that you wear on top of the person you were before loss. “Anybody who has suffered deep loss knows it isn’t going to change,” she says, her eyes veiled with an old, but still live, pain. “The most important advice I was given was not to be afraid to love the person you have lost, no matter how little or long you have known them. As hard as it is, as painful as it is, love really is the strongest emotion, and that fierce love you have sustains you. I can carry on for the rest of my life knowing how much I loved my daughter and that’s it. It doesn’t fix it. It doesn’t make it better. But it’s the reality.”

Gordon was a support. “He was suffering just as much as me and carrying on with his job.” They met when her PR company was conducting work for the Labour Party. “Because he was an MP and shadow chancellor, I didn’t… you don’t think anything’s going to…” she says, trailing off. The turning point was sitting together on a flight to a party conference in Scotland. Brown smiles. She has never managed to get Gordon’s office staff to admit that the seating arrangement was not as random as it seemed…

The thing people don’t know about Gordon is that he can make people laugh more than anyone I know. You think of him as serious, but when he’s telling a story he’s funnier than anyone

What is the spark for her? “The person that he is, the values that he holds and the effort that he makes. He won’t stop caring or going the extra mile on anything that he thinks will help others. And the thing people don’t know about Gordon is that he can make people laugh more than anyone I know. You think of him as serious, but when he’s telling a story he’s funnier than anyone.”

Their two sons are teenagers now but they were always a priority. “One of the odd things about being a PM and having a family is that you live on top of where you work — but that’s what’s brilliant. It’s what President Obama called the short commute. Even during the global crisis, Gordon was fantastic at finding moments when he could head back for a meal, or play with the kids.”

Her own early years were spent in Tanzania with her first school halfway up Mount Kilimanjaro. She returned to the UK at seven, where her parents split up shortly after. Her father moved to Ireland, and while they kept in touch, it was her mother, Pauline, a north London teacher, and her stepfather, Patrick, a doctor, who raised her and her two brothers. “My mum was big on multi-culturalism so we went to gurdwaras and temples and synagogues.” Pauline was always tired because she was always busy and, at 80, still is. She completed a PhD in social anthropology after retiring.

Famous friends: Brown with Michelle Obama
AFP/Getty Images

Perhaps that influences Brown’s sometimes controversial mix of friends — including Naomi Campbell. “I LOVE Naomi,” she says instantly. “She is a great friend. She was on time for me and was always quite lovely!” Then there’s JK Rowling. “She’s a woman who for all her good fortune is generous about giving back and keeps her feet firmly on the ground.”

The question, she says, is what friends see in her. But it’s easy to admire Brown’s integrity, compassion and grit. The campaigning will continue, though Brexit means that she will have to work separately with Britain, which will be excluded from her EU work. This summer she will embark on a fundraising Fife coastal walk with friends Sandi Toksvig, Kathy Lette and Arabella Weir. After that she will try to complete a book she has started. It’s all about helping people find confidence.

“There is a way to bring about changes,” insists Brown. “But you need to use your voice.”

An Evening with Gordon Brown, 7.30pm tomorrow, from £15, southbankcentre.co.uk

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in