What's Betty Boothroyd doing now

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A.� The former Speaker of the House of Commons has just published her autobiography. Miss Boothroyd is the first woman to be Speaker. She also fronted a war-time swing band and at the age of 17 was a Tiller Girl. < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Sounds interesting. Biography please

A.� She was born on 8 October, 1929, the only child of Archibald Boothroyd, a textile worker, and Mary, a weaver. Both parents were trade unionists and their home in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, was often used for meetings, committees and elections, inspiring Betty to an interest in politics. 'I always say I came out of the womb into the Labour movement. If you were born among those satanic mills, then you have to want to bring about change to improve the quality of life for people living in that kind of environment,' she once said. She joined the Labour League of Youth when she was 16 and stood as a candidate in the local elections when she was 21.

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Q.� So what about her showbiz career

A.� She loved dancing and went to lessons at the local temperance hall every Saturday morning. Then she went for an audition with the Tiller Girls - famous for their precision dancing - in Bradford. She was accepted, much to her father's annoyance. He was rather old-fashioned and didn't want any daughter of his to go to sinful London.

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Q.� But she loved the life

A.� Not much. This was the bitterly cold winter of 1946-7. She found London an alien place and was mocked for her Yorkshire accent. She worked hard but felt she didn't fit in. The highlight of her career came after training when she went for a try-out at the London Palladium in Val Parnell's High Time! There she did three routines with a top swing band called Skyrockets. Betty had hit the big time - at �6 a week - but it lasted only a few weeks. Soon afterwards, she contracted a foot infection that she used as an excuse to give up.

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Q.� So back to politics

A.� She became a secretary in the research department at the Labour Party's headquarters and then moved to the House of Commons to become an MP's secretary. At 36 she became a councillor on Hammersmith Borough Council, and in 1973 she became MP for West Bromwich - the fifth seat she contested. Boothroyd became an assistant government whip and was voted on to Labour's executive. She was the first Labour woman to be voted a deputy speaker in July, 1987. She beat Peter Brooke, the former Northern Ireland secretary for the Speaker's job in 1992.

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Q.� Fame at last

A.� Indeed. She did the job very well and soon knew how to deal with trouble. She once switched off Ann Widdecombe's microphone to shut her up. On another occasion Dennis Skinner, the fiery Labour MP for Bolsover, said: 'Madam ... you and I are getting on a bit ...' Boothroyd, then in her early 60s, responded: 'The honourable gentleman may be getting on a bit, but the chair is not!' She even became something of a cult star in America when a US channel began to televise the Commons. Matthew Parris, writing in The Times, said of her: 'She combines the glamour of a diva, the bearing of a kindergarten head and the lip of a barmaid.'

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Betty Boothroyd, The Autobiography, is published by Century at �17.99.

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By Steve Cunningham