When my friend, the optician, discovered that I had just interviewed Jonathan Aitken for Evangelicals Now, the first thing he asked was: 'Is he repentant?'.
Not a surprising question, because it's the one everyone asks about the former Conservative minister who was sent to prison for his misdemeanours.
There are those who feel that Jonathan Aitken's recent book Pride and Perjury is rather self-justifying and that he still has a long way to go. But, of course, only God can read the heart and only time will tell if he is truly repentant.