But George Osborne, the Londoner selected by Tatton Tories on Thursday, insists his political career has been something of an accident - not unlike that of The Accidental MP, Martin Bell.

His background is privileged, but not typically Tory. His father, Sir Peter Osborne, is the founder of Osborne and Little, a successful wallpaper and fabric company. His childhood in Paddington, West London, was filled with people from business, the design world and the media.

Wife Frances, however, does come from a traditional Tory background. The daughter of Conservative peer Lord Howell, Frances met George at a Sunday lunch hosted by a mutual friend in 1996. They were married two years later.

"It was pretty much love at first sight," he said on Monday.

School was St Paul's in London, with an atmosphere more akin to a grammar school than a public school, and he then spent a year at college in America.

Set in the middle of rural North Carolina, with the nearest town 80 miles away, the college turned him into a big fan of America.

"I know if an American had gone to a similar university in Britain they wouldn't have been as friendly," he said. "And they loved the accent."

The travel bug stayed with him. At 18, he crossed the Sahara in a second-hand Army Land Rover and a year later he travelled down the River Amazon.

"I'm a great believer in people getting out there and into the world," he said. He went to Oxford to study modern history - not the typical graduate's route to Westminster - and chose to be a poacher rather than a gamekeeper.

Ignoring the Conservative society, he concentrated instead on editing the student magazine Isis.

"There was not a great deal of life in Conservative students," he said. "And not much life in Labour students either.

"I have always had a sort of draw to politics. But certainly at university and afterwards I started off wanting to be a journalist."

Six months as a freelance for the Sunday and Daily Telegraph and The Times followed Oxford.

Looking at his political CV to date, you would imagine a serious-minded heavyweight writing something for the back pages.

Not at all. His assignments included a look at video games and finding out why people bought decommissioned Second World War tanks.

"It was the off-beat stuff, which I enjoy reading," he said.

"Part of the job of journalism is to inform but another part is to entertain. And it's probably more difficult to write."

It wasn't all about the lighter side of life, though. He also wrote articles on the pressures of families forced to move with their jobs.

"But it was the personal stories rather than heavy political or economic news," he said.

He still writes for newspapers but gave up the frustrations of full-time journalism for politics when a university colleague, who worked for the Conservatives, persuaded him to get involved.

"I thought of it as a job," he said of his first post, in the political office of 10 Downing Street under John Major.

"I've always treated the work I have done as quite separate in a way from my support for the party."

After Downing Street there were spells as a special advisor to the Ministries of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and as head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department.

His job alongside William Hague - a man who he says is 'good fun to work with' - was another accident.

While working for MAFF he considered quitting professional politics, but instead got involved with Mr Hague's campaign to lead the party.

Despite his place at the heart of the Conservative Party, he is keen to stress that his current political ambitions stretch no further than winning back Tatton.

"I have seen inside 10 Downing Street," he said. "But that's not what I'm interested in doing now.

"I'm interested in the things I have done less of, like helping people on the ground in the constituency.

"If the party aspires to be the Government then we've really got to reach out to all parts of the country."

He said the crushing defeat at the last general election was not just a rejection of the Conservatives. People wanted change after 18 years, he said, but many Conservative ideas had not been rejected.

But has he had too privileged an upbringing to be an effective people's MP?

"I was privileged and above all because I come from a very happy family," he said. "My parents have been married for more than 30 years and they're still in love with each other.

"That's the greatest privilege in my experience."

As the couple have no children, moving to the constituency doesn't pose a problem. But they will be moving into rented accomodation - he's not taking anything for granted.

A much bigger dilemma is posed by his football affiliations. He's a Chelsea fan.

"I used to live right next door to Stamford Bridge and for the first year my life was made a misery by football," he said. "I decided if I couldn't beat them I had to join them."

Other interests are theatre, cinema and dining out with his wife.

"Really we lead the normal life of people in their late twenties," he said. "Maybe that's a change for the Conservatives, having someone going to the football, the cinema and restaurants."

Another accidental MP for Tatton?

"A lot of people's lives are not planned," he said. "Mine has not been planned."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.