Christopher Hitchens slept with two members of Thatcher's government...

He had a 'relapse' into homosexuality....

He said these alleged encounters were a "mildly enjoyable relapse" into homosexuality that had begun for him at Leys School, the Cambridge independent where he was educated.

Hitchens, 60, who studied politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College in the late 1960s, has made his claim in his memoir Hitch-22, to be published in June.

He declined to name with whom he claimed to have slept.

An extract of the autobiography was published in The Sunday Times.

Hitchens wrote that while at Oxford "every now and then, even though I was by then fixed on the pursuit of young women, a mild and mildly enjoyable relapse would occur and I suppose that I can 'claim' this ... of two young men who later became members of Margaret Thatcher's government."

He added: "For this reason I can't really give any more names."

Hitchens did not specify whether by "Margaret Thatcher's government" he meant only cabinet ministers, or junior ministers as well; or if the phrase meant Conservative MPs and lords more generally.