Olympics

The day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics in Singapore in July 2005, I was asked to research and write a book about the dramatic story of Britain's bid.

With my friend and colleague David Bond, the sports editor of the Daily Telegraph, I spoke to a series of key people involved in the campaign before we put the book together with London 2012's former communications chief Mike Lee.

I was, therefore, not surprised when Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell suggested this week that London might not have bid for the Games, had people known that a recession was on the way, though she now says her comments were misconstrued.