In the first few minutes of our discussion I suggested to him that, “While we may disagree on the merits of austerity, you are not really doing much of it, George, are you?”

He agreed smilingly. How could he not? If an Austerity Olympics had been staged, Greece would have swept the board while Osborne’s Britain would have been an also-ran.

Osborne also seemed appreciative of the help he was getting from the Bank of England... “They are behind me every step of the way,’ he told me, evidently relieved not to be in my situation, hostage to a European Central Bank that was doing precisely the opposite.

“I envy you, George,” I lamented. “Unlike you, I have a central bank stabbing me in the back every step of the way. Can you imagine what it would be like?”

Tapped phone calls

In October 2013 transatlantic relations were sent into a tailspin by the revelation that the US spy agencies had been tapping the phone of Angela Merkel.

According to Varoufakis the Americans were still listening in to sensitive European government communications in April 2015. My mobile rang. It was [economist and adviser] Jeff Sachs.

Reluctant to convey my desperation over an unsecured line, I chose to share with him the only good news of the day: almost a month too late we were at last ready to default to the IMF.

Half an hour later my phone rang again. It was Jeff, laughing uncontrollably. ‘You will not believe this, Yanis,’ he said.

“Five minutes after we hung up, I received a call from the [US] National Security Council. They asked me if I thought you meant what you’d said! I told them that you did mean it and that, if they want to avert a default to the IMF, they’d better knock some sense into the Europeans.”

I called Alexis to inform him. Such moments reminded me that we were, ultimately, fighting a common enemy.

Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis is published by Bodley Head (£20). To order a copy from the Telegraph for £16.99 plus £1.99 p&p, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk