He spent a turbulent six years in Downing Street, but more than two years since his departure from Number 10, Alastair Campbell still misses being at the centre of public life, as he tells NICK MORRISON.

POPULAR legend has it, for those who live and breathe such things, that Alastair Campbell refers to it as his pension.

That's the book that will detail his decade at Tony Blair's side, and his years at the centre of power.

The highs and lows, the joyful victories and the explosive rows - all based on the diaries he kept throughout his time in Downing Street. "I will do it when the time is right to do it, I'm not in a rush. As people know, I kept a diary and I have always kept a diary and I still do, although it is not quite as interesting as it was, but I think you have got to be careful."

He says it would be easy to make a big splash with titbits and gossip, "if that is where you get your rocks off", but that would do a disservice to his time in Downing Street. "Tony and I had our moments, we still do, but that would not define our relationship," he says. Prime Time caught up with Campbell, 49, adressing business leaders. These "Audience With" sessions are regular events for him now.

He's much more affable than his image would suggest, not at all the intimidating presence of legend.

While not quite charming, he seems genial enough, although he appears to have a sort of amused detachment, and avoids eye contact, at least at first.

Although it's been more than two years since he left Number Ten, in the fall-out over the death of Dr David Kelly and the "dodgy dossier" on Iraq, he was brought back for six months in the run-up to this year's General Election and still speaks to the prime minister regularly. "I talk to him the whole time," he says. Although later he modifies this to "we still talk, but it is nothing like it was", and then to "I speak to him occasionally". Whatever the relationship, it is clear his regard for his former boss is undimmed. Again, the popular myth may be wrong.

It is widely believed that the PM was somewhat in awe of his chief press secretary, but perhaps it is really the other way around. "I still think Tony Blair is the right guy for the right time," he says. "The thing about Tony,

I'll tell you what is amazing about him, is his ability, and Clinton had this as well, no matter what is going on, to get up in the morning and go to work. "He once said that he found his life was a conspiracy against normality. You can't just go to a football match or go down the pub, and everybody has an opinion about you. I think that with all that is going on he has remained incredibly normal."

After spending more time with Mr Blair over a decade than anyone else apart from Cherie, and even then he may have the edge, he says it would have been odd if their relationship had come to an abrupt end. "It is not a question of him ringing up for advice, it is being friends," he says. "I know the way his mind works."

His earlier remark about his diary being less interesting suggests he misses Downing Street. "I do and I don't," he says. "There are things that I really miss and things I don't miss."

Chief among the things he doesn't miss is the press. In the early days, he successfully wooed much of the media to New Labour's cause, but towards the end the relationship soured. Was any of that his fault? Not really. "I think a lot of it is them," he says. "I don't deny there were some things I could have done differently, but I think what happened was they decided to make spin this big thing because it is about them in the end. "When this government is written up it will be seen as a very successful government." At least it will if Alastair Campbell has anything to do with it."