COMEDIAN, author and former member of parliament Gyles Brandreth is famous for making word play look like child’s play.

And the multi-talented entertainer is excited to be returning to Warrington, where he says his broadcasting career began while he was a young reporter for the Manchester Evening News.

The 69-year-old said: “I first visited, believe it or not, in 1970, and I was first a reporter and I was sent from Manchester to write a portrait of Warrington.

“I remember there was the statue of Oliver Cromwell. I have a feeling Warrington was in Lancashire when I first came, I liked it very much.

“As a child I knew that part of the world well and it’s going to be good to be back.

“This visit for me is a trip down memory lane because Warrington is where my life as a journalist began.”

Gyles is a veteran contestant on some of the nation’s favourite television and radio shows, including QI, Have I Got News For You and Just a Minute.

He has also returned to his early career in journalism, as an ‘intrepid reporter’ for The One Show.

And last year Gyles was named chancellor of the University of Chester, so he is eager to visit the organisation’s Padgate campus after his appearance at Lymm Festival on Monday: “I’m coming to Lymm for two reasons, partly because I saw it was near Warrington and I love Warrington,” he said.

“Another one of the reasons I wanted to come back is that the university has a campus in Warrington and I really want to visit this campus and see what the students are getting up to.

“I’m excited to be visiting because I’m backing Warrington’s bid to be City of Culture and the very fact that we have the university campus there is one of the chief reasons the town deserves to win it.”

But Gyles, who confesses to a ‘lifelong love of words’, is visiting to entertain guests at Lymm Festival with his characteristic puns and tomfoolery as he leads the audience through the curiosities of English language.

He added: “The show I’m doing is fun, it’s going to be entertaining we hope. It’s a celebration of language.

“I will be talking about words because language is the love of my life.

“Without words what are we. We wouldn’t be able to communicate without words and we are so lucky that English is our parent tongue - it’s the richest language in the world.

“I’ve been collecting words all my life, even when I was a schoolboy I was fascinated by words. Long, short, silly and simple words.”

And he set readers a challenge: “The first interesting word I came across was many years ago when I started playing Scrabble and it’s the word ‘Yex’, it’s a very useful Scrabble word.

“Is it a witches’ curse, a part of a horse’s hood or is it a hiccup?”

If nothing else, Gyles’ book Word Play will certainly up your Scrabble game and you can expect a few more tips from the founder of the National Scrabble Championships.

But he said that knowing long and unusual words has not been an advantage for him in every game: “In some ways it helps on Just a Minute but the trouble is when you use too many long and complicated words you can end up stumbling over them.”

Gyles is also a much loved guest in Countdown’s dictionary corner, and the longest surviving member of the team after racking up more than 300 appearances on the show since the 1980s.

But the former Conservative MP for Chester certainly hasn’t defined himself as a just a quiz show contestant and collector of uncommon words.

He has travelled the country performing one man comedy shows as well as taking the stage in various theatre productions, occasionally dressed as a woman.

And his books span almost every genre including children’s stories, a knitting manual, fictional Victorian murder mysteries and even a form of self help book exploring the secrets of happiness.

He has also penned biographies of the Queen and Prince Philip and of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

And inevitably there are his Westminster diaries, detailing his time inside the Houses of Parliament.

Gyles said: “I have to say when I was MP the people were laughing too, but not necessarily in a good way.

“When I ceased to be an MP I returned to what I had done before because I was a writer and broadcaster from the start.”

And now he plays historical detective too, as he vows to expose the identity of Jack the Ripper in his newest title, Jack the Ripper: Case Closed.

He said: “I have a feeling I may have solved the century-old Jack the Ripper mystery and if people come to the event I may be able to share with them the secret of who was the real Jack the Ripper.

“I write so much because I can’t keep quiet, I can’t shut up. It’s probably a mistake because people get confused. They want to know is it the person who writes Victorian murder mysteries or is it the person who writes word books?

“But at least it keeps me out of mischief.”

n For tickets to Gyles Brandreth’s talk on Monday from 7pm at Statham Lodge Hotel from 7pm visit lymmfestival.org.uk.