I am Warwick

09/11/2025

19/10/2025

The Mop

17/09/2025

Keith & Jo Lodge

Together they lived a life steeped in tradition, as some see it, an old-fashioned and hard life selling coal on the canals, but it was the latest technology and a penguin that inadvertently brought them together as friends 25 years ago.

Keith

Keith was born in 1952, joining two older sisters, Beryl and Valarie and was later joined by Wendy, all to parents Doris and Douglas. Whilst Doris had the hard job of running the home in Ruislip, West London, Douglas, formerly a radar technician during the war, was Deputy Director of Contracts for Post Office Telephones.

Keith enjoyed school and found he was good at mathematics, but discovered his real passion at 15. Keith’s father decided to buy a fibreglass cruiser to fit out and run on the local canals. Whilst on the boat, they passed an old working boat called “Piceses” and Keith was smitten. Hillingdon Youth Community Services ran the boat, and Keith joined up to get involved. ‘Dennis ran the boat, and he trained me,’ Keith explains, ‘Dennis had been born and raised on canal boats and knew all the tricks.’

Boat life was hard. ‘We often ran 14-hour days,’ Keith tells me, ‘You soon learn to do as little with your body as possible just to make it through the day.’ Despite the hard work and long hours, Keith was running the boats full-time by the age of 16, although he was technically too young. Keith trained as an assistant Youth Leader so that he could be paid, and then learnt climbing to become a Youth Leader.

At 17, Keith left school and joined Post Office Telephones on a 3-year apprenticeship, but at 18, Keith was offered a full-time role at the youth centre. ‘I knew my job at the Post Office was better paid and had a better pension,’ Keith continues, ‘I also knew I wanted a boat and I needed to have a house to get the capital to own one.’ Keith also knew he was in a privileged position, being one of 12 apprentices taken on in the circuit laboratories based in the City of London, a specialist role within telecoms. Keith stayed in that role until 1982, when he was finally able to leave home.

In the intervening years, Keith continued his love of all things canal, including working on the first canal restoration project in 1972. ASHTAC, as it was known, saw over 1,000 people come together to restore a section of the Ashton Canal, removing over 1,000 tonnes of rubbish, eventually leading to the Cheshire Ring being fully reopened four years later.
During this time, Keith also helped his parents on their boat. ‘Dad was sailing on the River Thames and had become Rear Commodore of Racecourse Yacht Basin Cruising Club, looking after all the club cruises along the tidal Thames to the sea.

In 1982, though, Keith took an opportunity at work, which took him to Felixstowe, which eventually gave him more involvement with the software side of the business, now known as British Telecom. Keith stayed here, retiring in 2002. Life in Felixstowe flourished, and Keith started a family, but sadly, it didn’t last the course of time.

Jo

Jo was the firstborn in 1962 to mother Janet, a nurse and father Anthony, a dairyman. They were joined a year later by Jo’s younger brother Timothy. Originally based in Hertfordshire, they moved often because of Anthony’s work and soon ended up in Hampshire.

In 1967, they moved to Hurstbourne Priors near Andover and stayed, allowing Jo to join the local primary School. Jo enjoyed her life, and she joined the local choir despite being unable to sing. It all came with an expectation that she would work on the farm, so she was thrust into country life. ‘I enjoyed the life, especially horse riding,’ Jo explains, ‘My best friend Hilary and I were out riding whenever we could.’

Jo followed the route of many at that time, joining the Brownies and then Guides, living a simple, happy life. ‘I enjoyed cookery, needlework, and drama at school,’ Jo tells me. ‘I definitely wasn’t academic!’

At 16, Jo left school and picked up a summer job with Vitacrest, a local but international salad farm, and here she met her first husband. Soon Jo went to the Silk Mill in Whitchurch, where she made silk robes for barristers, judges and universities with renowned tailors Ede & Ravenscroft. ‘I enjoyed the work,’ Jo says, ‘I eventually ran the room before I left to become a full-time mother in 1983.’

Jo married in 1980, moving to the next village and gave birth to her first son in 1983, soon followed by her daughter, Victoria, who sadly died almost immediately. ‘We had 8 hours with Victoria before she died of what we later discovered was an incredibly rare congenital pulmonary condition,’ Jo explains, ‘it was only the 26th case in 100 years.’

Another four girls followed though, with the last being born in 1998, giving Jo a very full-time role as a mother, although not necessarily a happy and fulfilling life.

Keith & Jo

In 2000, Jo’s son wanted a computer for school work, and so a family computer was purchased, and Jo soon started exploring the internet and stumbled across some chat rooms. Meanwhile, in Felixstowe, Keith was tasked with testing the software behind the chat rooms to see if it was robust enough. While Keith was in one of the chat rooms, he was approached by a "Penguin" who was understandably struggling with using a computer. ‘Keith helped me understand how to use the computer,’ Jo confesses, ‘and whilst chatting to Keith, I realised just how lonely my life was and that I was heading for a breakdown.’

Keith and Jo kept in touch, chatting for over six months, and eventually decided to swap photos. ‘I wasn’t very confident in myself, so I sent a photo of Miss Bournemouth!’ Jo admits.

Eventually, they decided to meet. ‘I drove down to Andover one October and we had coffee,’ Keith tells me, ‘we just talked and talked and eventually had lunch before I had to leave.’ Keith was called back to Watford to take care of some family business with his sisters, but he and Jo kept talking.

Jo, more and more, realised that something was wrong with her and her life and began to struggle, ‘I knew I had to get away from my life, my husband had controlled me so much I didn’t know who I was anymore, but I didn’t know where to go or how to get away.’ Jo tells me, ‘I spoke to Keith and he offered me the use of his spare room in Felixstowe. I jumped at it!’

Jo couldn’t deal with the upheaval at first and quickly returned home, ‘My head was spinning trying to know what to do,’ Jo admits, ‘the family, my sanity, everything was rushing around my head and then 9 days after returning home, I was sitting in a taxi heading to Felixstowe again.’ Jo had to leave the children with her husband and their grandmother in order to get her head back together.

‘I was in pieces about leaving the children and hoped that we would be able to make it work,’ Jo sadly admits, ‘in the end, he controlled that too; at least I have managed to keep a relationship with two of my daughters.’

Having been through his own bad relationship, Keith understood what Jo was going through. ‘Without Keith, I don’t know what I would have done,’ Jo explains. He had been in a similar relationship and just helped me to find myself again.

Jo decided she needed to work and managed to get a job with M&S. ‘I loved it,’ Jo explains, ‘looking after customers, meeting new people, it was an amazing four years.’

Keith taught Jo how to climb and, having decided to retire in 2002, he moved on to be a climbing instructor for two years.

Jo was fully aware of Keith’s plans for life. ‘He had explained to me that he intended to sell his house and buy a boat,’ Jo explains, ‘but I had never been on a boat, it just sounded great though.’

Keith organised a boating holiday to get Jo acquainted with the canals. ‘I hired a boat and off we went,’ Keith tells me, ‘the first day it was absolutely lashing it down with rain and we went through 27 locks!’ Jo smiles, ‘I loved it, I couldn’t wait to make it our life.’

In early 2004, Jo’s divorce came through, and by September of that year, Keith and Jo were married. ‘It was a simple wedding,’ they explain, ‘we had 10 guests and spent less than £200 on it, but we’ve been on honeymoon ever since.’

The couple had put a deposit down on a new boat, designed as a replica of that first boat that Keith fell in love with. ‘It was a 70ft replica of “Piceses” of the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company fleet,’ Keith tells me, ‘and we named it “Hadar” after a star, as many of their boats were named in that way.’ But Jo explains, ‘We moved onto a boat called “Misty Lady” first, as Keith needed to sell his house to pay for his new boat, and we eventually moved onto “Hadar” in 2008.

Jo still needed to work, so she decided to sell coal from the boat to other boaters. ‘I sold coal from the boat for 8 years in the end,’ Jo explains, ‘but in 2013, after visiting the Saltisford Canal Centre in Warwick, we put our names down for a permanent mooring.’

In October 2013, Keith & Jo moored at Saltisford, having been lucky enough to get one of only two residential moorings at that time. But things were about to take a turn for the worse as Keith was rushed into hospital.

On January 14th 2014, Keith woke up at 1.45 am, screaming in agony. ‘I didn’t know what was going on,’ Jo tells me, ‘but I knew we needed an ambulance.’ Keith was rushed to Warwick Hospital and was deteriorating rapidly as he was rushed into the resus unit. ‘The last thing I remember was going through the doors to the hospital,’ Keith admits, ‘I lost two weeks, I have no recollection.’

Jo, however, was fully aware, ‘I could hear Keith screaming, I knew he was in a bad way, then they told me they were going to operate.’ Initially, they thought they would be able to use keyhole surgery to deal with the issue, but it soon became apparent that they would have to open up Keith completely.

Keith’s gall bladder had gone gangrenous, and sepsis had set in too. ‘I had to have three different types of antibiotics to get rid of the infections,’ Keith says, ‘I ended up in hospital for six weeks just trying to get back on my feet.’

Jo’s coal business had to be scaled back too. ‘We would normally be out on the canal from March onwards, just wintering at a mooring,’ Jo explains, ‘in the end we only managed September and October.’

Keith and Jo became more involved with the Saltisford Trust, with Jo finally becoming a Trustee in 2015, being part of a team of five running the Saltisford Centre based on the Saltisford Arm of the canal. ‘It’s a charity, a not-for-profit, and all the money raised goes towards maintaining the canal.’ Jo explains, ‘It’s a lot of work, but we think it is worth it.’

In 2018, with the cargo hold now empty of coal and the boat being settled in Saltisford, Keith decided to build a railway layout, using the 009 gauge railway he inherited from his Father. ‘We emptied the cargo space,’ Keith explains, ‘Insulated under all the canvas sides and created a space where the railway could safely sit.’ The railway has even made it onto one of YouTube’s biggest canal channels, “Cruising The Cut”.

Jo’s family life returned to an extent, as has Keith’s, although in a very unusual way. ‘Having walked away from the family, it was predictably difficult to build a relationship with the children,’ Jo quietly explains, ‘One of my daughters reached out and we managed a reunion and eventually a Christmas gathering.’ Keith continues, ‘My son was there too and unbeknownst to us, he and Jo’s daughter kept in contact, and now they live together, and we have three grandchildren!’

Almost 12 years after arriving, Jo & Keith have had to move on from canal life and Keith’s beloved ‘Hadar’. ‘2024 was the first year we didn’t spend the summer travelling the canals,’ Jo says, ‘we knew it was time to move on before we resented living on a boat or it got too late to do anything about it’.

Keith and Jo have stayed in Warwick, living in the heart of town on Smith Street, moving their life from “Hadar” and Keith’s model railway was taken away to its new custodian. Both Keith & Jo are very much still active in Warwick, though, and intend to live life to the full, enjoying spending time with friends and especially their grandchildren. Although Jo has retired as a trustee after 10 years, they both still volunteer every week, and Jo has not ruled out becoming a trustee again: ‘Ten years is the maximum you can do without having to take a 12-month break, but who knows what the future will bring.’ Jo adds.

Their hard work and dedication, along with the team at Saltisford Canal Centre, have certainly paid off as the centre have won “Warwick in Bloom”, winning Gold in two categories, Silver Gilt in a third and taking the Overall Title too! They have just had their 40th Anniversary Open Day, which saw plenty of visitors and locals popping in to learn about the history, as well as enjoy a host of stalls and shows throughout the afternoon.

05/09/2025

It was a fairly low key visit, but The Princess Royal visited Warwick this Thursday to acknowledge Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick 900 years and the renovation of The Lord Leycester whilst meeting various charities and volunteers who all go towards making Warwick the wonderful place that it is. Escorted by The Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox, The Princess Royal walked through Warwick between the venues, before driving herself back to London.

Photographs by JPS Photography

06/08/2025

Sharon Daniels MBE

From playing shop to following her dreams at an early age , picking her self up when those dreams get shattered & starting again whilst raising close to a million pounds for charity.

Sharon was born in Brinklow, near Coventry, in 1971, her Father worked at Rootes & her parents were England Ballroom Champions. “I learnt to dance standing on Dad’s feet from an early age, I was 3½ when I first went to dance school.” Sharon explains how her love of dancing started.

Sharon’s father always wanted to go into retail, so he walked away from the car plant & moved into Coventry to take on a traditional corner shop. Sharon was 3 years old, “We lived above the shop & I would play shop downstairs at every opportunity, when I wasn’t dancing.”

The shop was successful & a few years later an opportunity came up to buy supermarket so Sharon’s Dad jumped at it. At the back of the supermarket they started to make sweet bags to sell in the store, it became so popular that they started supplying the bags wholesale to other stores.

Sharon went to Pattisons Dance Academy & College & was soon lighting up the stage & TV screens with her dancing, “I was in the Coventry Theatre Pantomime, ‘Emu in Pantoland’ with Rod Hull & Emu in 1977 & it was my first professional job, I earned £6 for the whole run.” Sharon tells me how her career began, “I put the money in an account as my Mum always told me I should save my money, it’s still in the same account now just gathering interest.”

Eventually Sharon’s parents sold the supermarket & started ‘Sweet Talk’ a sweet wholesaling business that even started supplying Woolworths. “I worked packing sweets & helping out after school & I would also be dancing.” Sharons dance career continued with TV appearances on shows like Tiswas & Rod Hull & Emu, as well as modelling swimwear for an American company.

Sharon trained at The Royal Ballet through the academy & at 16 she was on stage with both the Royal Ballet & The Scottish Ballet, “It was a brilliant time, I loved it & didn’t want to do anything else.” By the time that Sharon was 19 years old she was living that dream with a career in dance. Then during rehearsals for a Can Can routine she was performing at the Motor Show in the NEC, Sharon had an accident, “I did the splits & couldn’t get up again, they thought I’d dislocated my hip but it was worse than that.” Sharon was taken to hospital where they told her she would be in a wheelchair for life. Devastated, Sharon vowed to fight & prove them wrong. “I was in a rehabilitation centre in Burton-Upon-Trent for 10 weeks with physio & some amazing help.” Sharon left there walking, but not well & it took another 12 months until she was back to walking normally.

Although Sharon couldn’t dance anymore, she could teach dance, so trained to make it happen. Life was getting back to normal & although her dancing career had been restricted, Sharon was happy she was still involved in the world of dance.

Sharon was 21 & had already had one major life changing accident when her life was turned upside down again. “I was involved in a car accident & the fire brigade had to cut me free.” Sharon had sustained a head injury & lost part of her memory. “I couldn’t remember how to teach anymore.” This second career blow would have finished most people if the first hadn’t, but with some encouragement from one of her old dance teachers Sharon found another route into the world of dance, “I had a call from my old dance teacher & she told me, ‘We’re not losing your talent, we’re going to get you back into dance’, & she got me to do the choreography for the Coventry Youth Operatic Group.” Sharon was back, planning routines in tap dance & more.

Soon Sharon was offered the opportunity to do more choreography including choreographing a fashion show, “I went to the Clothes Show to train & understand what was needed & realised it was a similar process to doing musical choreography, I just needed some direction in putting the clothes together & some general fashion skills & I was off.” Sharon’s love of fashion meant it was an easy transition.

With her first professional event for Hammells Clothing behind her, Sharon was soon gathering momentum in the world of fashion, in 1996 Sharon used some of the money she had earned to set up her own production company, ‘Simply Upstaged’ & her Dad & Uncle would help her by building some of the sets.

When George Davis left Next & started his ‘George at Asda’ brand, Sharon was called in to manage the fashion shows, but her previous injuries were catching up with her so it was getting harder to do the physical work & Sharon started to think about other options.

In 2005 Sharon was approached about a fashion show to raise money for a local breast cancer charity, “I was told that ‘The Coventry Mobile Breast Screening Unit’ needed funds so we set up a show to raise what we could & managed to get £30,000 for them, it worked so well we decided to do it again the next year.”

At one of the shows one of Sharon’s suppliers couldn’t get there to run the stand selling the items from the show so Sharon convinced her Mum to step in to do it. “It was a great success & brought back the love of retail to us. Eventually people kept asking if there was a shop that they could visit too & that got me thinking.”

In 2008 Sharon opened ‘Fascino of Warwick’ on Smith Street selling Italian fashion jewellery, accessories & clothes. “That was the year I received the MBE from Prince Charles, as he was then, I couldn’t believe it when the letter came through.” 2008 turned into a great year with the MBE for services to charity, opening the shop & then Sharon found love with Chris, “I met Chris when I had the shop & in 2009 we were married, he’s only ever known me as a business woman with the shops so he’s used to the fact that I’m always working & he’s incredibly understanding.”

In 2010 Fascino moved up to Jury Street to bigger premises & a new part of the business was created, ‘I do’ which primarily offered wedding dresses. The shop was doing well, but then the parking was compromised, “We could use The Lord Leycester Hotel car park initially, but when the hotel closed we lost access & it meant the location wasn’t working as well, at the same time a shop in the centre of town became available.” Following the opportunity, 2015 saw Sharon move to NV Her.

2020 was obviously a difficult time for everyone, but Sharon managed to keep going with her click & collect service plus her Facebook Live mini fashion shows, “They were a life saver for me, not only keeping the business going, but keeping me going, I’ve always worked, since I was a kid, I would come home from school & work, so to be told I couldn’t work just didn’t compute.”

Having survived lockdown, Sharon then had an opportunity when a shop across the road became available, “I have an obsession with shoes, so I opened ‘Shoe NV’ selling shoes, accessories & menswear to expand the shop. I promised Dad I wouldn’t leave the shop so it was the best way to expand.” Sharon explains.

Despite everything Sharon keeps on going, she travels in to Warwick from Dunchurch everyday, she still does her Facebook Live shows, she still does her charity fashion shows & Sharon is still quite laid back about it, “I guess I’ve raised about £1 million so far over all the years I’ve been doing it.”.

An inspirational woman who has bounced back twice, created a new career & built a small fashion empire whilst raising vital funds for charity, we’re definitely lucky to have her here in Warwick.

05/08/2025

Paul Elliott

Throughout his life, Paul has had over 45 different jobs, but the one constant has been entertaining people. Sometimes, it was to deflect the bullies, but mainly, it was for the love of the crowd. It wasn’t for the money!

Paul was born in Rugby in 1953, the second of 6 children for his mother, Breda and father, Joe. Breda worked as a carer and Joe was a labourer, with the family living in Tin Town, Rugby, having moved here from Ireland. ‘Mum was always a bit of an entertainer and had a real dry sense of humour even up until she died at 94.’ Paul explains where his entertainer genes come from: ‘Dad was a great singer, so it’s no surprise I ended up like this.’

It’s fair to say that Paul didn’t enjoy school; he wasn’t a natural academic, and he spent most of his time telling jokes to keep the bullies at bay. At 13, Paul left school and entered day continuation as an apprentice welder, ‘Well, I was more of a general dogsbody!’ Paul tells me.

Eventually, Paul managed to get a job selling knitting wool: ‘I had a van and
would travel all over the country selling wool and living in the van to save money.’ Paul was saving money to buy a double bass, ‘My brother started a folk club in the Star pub when I was 18 or 19, and I was taken with the double bass, so I saved where I could to get one.’

Paul has had many varied roles over the years: ‘I was helping build the M6 at one point, but my best skill was avoiding doing anything.’

At weekends and when he could, Paul played, and it was that ‘addiction’ that led Paul to meet his soon-to-be wife in 1974. ‘I was playing at a friend's wedding when I met Glen, who was there as a guest.’ Paul tells me, ‘Glen was a nurse in Warwick, and her grandparents had a grocery store in town. Before I knew it, I had moved in with Glen and her parents, and then in 1977, we married.’

‘I’ve always been a bit crazy, but Glen saved me,’ Paul admits, ‘She can be mad too, but she saved me from myself.’

During that time, Paul started working at Lockheed, ‘I hated it and would often play truant, so that didn’t last long.’

Eventually, Paul found some stability at work: ‘I managed to get a job with British Telecom, repairing lines.’ Paul tells me, ‘It was great as we didn’t do much and I managed to learn to play the guitar whilst at work!’ After 16 years, though, the lure of a redundancy package was too tempting.

During this time, Paul and Glen had started a family and many music nights in the area. ‘Glen learnt violin and we started performing together, we’ve been performing at the Warwick Folk Festival since it started and I’ve played in other bands too’ Paul continues, ‘I played in “The Flying Dogs” with Dave Nash and we were at “The Hilton” in Warwick and
“The Haunch of Venison” every week, we even recorded an album in 1983 and
immediately split up when we’d finished it.’

Paul started a folk club in Warwick, which he ran for years, ‘We even had “Fairport
Convention” playing and Gordon Giltrap played too.’ Paul tells me, ‘Glen and I started an act called “Bonzo & Doris”, it was a bit like Tommy Cooper meets Mr Bean, but we managed to get on TV with it, “Pot of Gold” with Des O’Connor and even “Britain’s Got Talent” called us to ask us to perform.’ Paul laughs, ‘It was a great day out with lots of fun, we didn’t care if we got through or not, so just enjoyed the day and had our 2 seconds of
fame.’

Paul has travelled the world performing, even going to South Korea & India. ‘I’d taken redundancy to focus on music and must have played in all the Irish Bars, they’re everywhere,’ Paul explains, ‘but after 10 years of living a great life and travelling the world, I’d built up plenty of debt, there’s no money in what I was doing.’

Golf was another of Paul’s loves, and he enjoyed playing when he could, even making it as Captain of Warwick Golf Club.

Paul was enjoying entertaining though, ‘I was a ghost at Warwick Castle, then went self employed as a Rat Catcher until one Christmas they didn’t have a Father Christmas so I stepped in and became a full time Santa for 10 years until COVID hit.’ Paul reminisces, ‘It’s an amazing place, I loved working there, I even made it on to their Channel 4 documentary.

After COVID things changed and they didn’t need me, so now I’m Santa at
Weatherly Manor, and Glen is Mrs Claus.’

To help pay the bills Paul started working in Mental Health Care at the age of 63, but soon found himself in need of some care when at the age of 70 Paul had a heart attack. ‘I’m ok now, I’ve recovered and make sure I eat well and exercise with lots of walking, I aim for a couple of hours a day.’

During Lockdown, Paul took to YouTube and Facebook to keep people entertained. His daughter, Kelly, an online singing coach, continues this tradition with her channel “Five Go
Sailing”, where she, her husband, and their three children sail around the world,
documenting their lives. Paul’s son Joseph, with two children, also follows a family tradition and works in Social Care.

Paul still loves to keep people entertained and performs at charity gigs and wakes as well as the Warwick Folk Festival, and can still often be found in The Castle Inn just jamming with other musicians. ‘Entertainment has made my life, it’s been wonderful, but expensive!’
Paul admits, ‘My joy in life is just playing music with good musicians; just sitting round playing, not gigs, just playing.’

There’s no doubt that Paul has entertained throughout the years and I’m sure he’ll continue as long as he can, especially as Father Christmas.

30/07/2025

It has been a minute since I posted a story of the people that live, work and influence Warwick. I apologise for that, life is busy and having your head in the correct space to write isn’t always possible.

I’m aware I’ve come back with what some will consider a controversial interview, I hope you’ll read it and recognise that it is not political, it’s the story of a person and the journey they have taken in life to be where they are, try and comment on that basis rather than using this post to make political comment on your beliefs. Thank you.

Matt Western

A family background of helping the disadvantaged and a sense of injustice in the system led to eventually taking up a role as a councillor, and then stepping in as the Labour candidate for parliament, which led to becoming the local MP. He didn’t imagine that when he was quality testing the ‘Slinky’ during his summer holidays as a student.

Matt was born in Barnet, North London, in November 1962, just before the severe winter of early 1963. Matt was a month premature, but survived to be the youngest of three to Mum, a part-time Secondary School bookkeeper and Dad, a Primary school headmaster.

Whilst fortunate to have parents who where around for the long school holidays, Matt recalls that his Dad was usually preoccupied with the school and the local community, “Dad was Head Master in Edmonton, an area in North London with high deprivation, but he worked hard to bring the school into the centre of the community and he was very committed to that.” Matt recalls, “We were very lucky to have an annual holiday in Dorset; every year, we went to the same place, like many people did in the sixties.” Although when Matt was 5, they travelled to Canada by boat, as Matt’s Canadian Grandmother had died, ‘We spent most of the time sorting out my grandmother's belongings, but we did get the chance to see some of Canada.” Matt remembers.

Despite Matt’s heritage, he mainly enjoyed school because of the social element rather than the academic side, “I just liked having mates and playing sport. You get to know more about yourself and, obviously, about people and interaction.” Matt continues, “I enjoyed learning, though, and I'm still really inquisitive about stuff. I'm not really that academic, and I don't think I was very inspired by my teachers in English or history or things like that. I was fascinated by physics, completely confused by chemistry, and we never did biology, so but I still retain the fascination about the world around me, and there were certain people who opened my eyes to that.”

Matt’s brother had struggled at secondary school, although did very well considering he has since been diagnosed as dyslexic, but Matt’s mum didn’t want her youngest son to follow the same route. With hard work, Matt managed to secure a place at a grant-maintained school with a scholarship to support the costs. “I was one of two boys from my year in the village that took the 8 mile bus journey to the school each day,” Matt recalls, “I didn’t want to go though, the summer before I said I didn’t want to leave my friends, but Mum had made up her mind.” Matt continues, “I don’t think it was the right thing for me looking back, Mum had expectations of what work I would do rather than understanding what made me tick or what my interests were, but that was fairly common in those days.”

Matt was very keen on all sports, particularly football. As a young boy, he played for his local team and went on to try tennis, rugby, and cricket with some success before an injury curbed his ability.

Having succeeded reasonably well at school, Matt followed the University route, “Went to Bristol and studied geography, it was the thing that sort of most interested me, of the academic subjects.” Matt confesses, “I mean, no one ever said to me, oh, there's this thing called philosophy or politics or kind of engineering or photography or journalism.” Matt worked throughout the holidays to earn money where he could, anything from foundry work in a toy factory, casting the ‘spud gun’ and testing the ‘slinky’ by throwing every 10th one down a set of stairs.

Leaving University Matt moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he worked for Peugeot on a graduate scheme a Regional Sales Manager. “I think it was when my political awakening happened, I was living up in the northeast of England, and I moved to and it was shortly after the miners strikes, and they just shut down the steel works. Obviously the pits had shut around and about in Durham and Northumberland, and it was just one shipyard left, Swan Hunter, on the Tyne. And I just saw this industrial decimation of a community, a proud community.”

Matt was moved to London, continuing the same role, and he saw a completely different side. “It was a time when the Big Bang had just happened, so the deregulation of financial stock markets. And there was suddenly this huge explosion of wealth in London, a broom cupboard flat in Kensington, Knightsbridge, going for £30,000. And that was twice the price of a house in the North-East. And I just suddenly realised the extreme inequality in our country, and how this was beginning to open up, and I guess that was my political awakening in a way. Although I didn't realise it, or think about it much at that time.”

Matt hadn’t really taken much interest in politics when he was younger. Although he was sociable, he wasn’t one to stand up and be the centre of attention, and he hadn’t taken any interest in student politics at university.

Back at work, Matt studied at evening class to earn a diploma in Marketing. After several successful years in London, Matt moved to the Midlands and the Peugeot UK Head Office. With his new skills, Matt worked in the Marketing Team and, after the successful launch of the Peugeot 406, took the role of Advertising and Media Manager. “The work we did was really cutting-edge stuff, and a lot of the advertising that we created then got used around the world for Peugeot.” Matt tells me.

Matt took the opportunity to work in Paris with Peugeot. “I was there for two years; they had a great culture and work ethic, and they really looked after you. After that, I was country manager for Austria and Switzerland, and then came back to the UK.” Matt explains. It was when Matt returned that his political activism started to show. “I bought a flat in Leamington in around 2004, and then in 2005 the licensing rules changed for pubs, and I was surrounded by pubs that were suddenly open until 3am with music playing.” Matt tells me, “At that point I started challenging the applicants and the council process, so I think that’s where my activism started kicking in.”

In 2006, Matt then purchased an old coach house at auction, “It was totally redundant, it hadn’t been used in years and still had the straw on the floor, but I thought it would make a great house.” Matt continues, “It needed a change of use, but the council refused it, because there was a moratorium on conversions, even though it had been built to house footmen as well as horses.” Eventually, Matt looked into the process and pleaded his case, winning on appeal.

Despite this, the building stood untouched for four years as Matt’s circumstances had changed. Peugeot reduced the size of its UK operation, and Matt, having seen a colleague retire at 65 and die within a month, decided life was too short to potter along with limited prospects. “I thought, what’s the point of working towards a great pension if you might not get the chance to enjoy it? So I left the company in 2007 and started up my own marketing consultancy business.” Business was tough, just after setting up the financial crash came to really add a challenge. Eventually, Matt managed to start the conversion work and created a low-carbon home. Around that time, friends were suggesting to Matt that he should look at being a councillor, and eventually, in 2013, he decided to stand and won.

Again in 2017, Matt was re-elected as a councillor, but Theresa May decided to call a General Election, and everything changed.

“The person who stood as a candidate in the 2015 General Election didn’t want to stand again, so I just wrote, dare I say, the best ever job application I've ever written in my life. And it sounded coherent and pretty persuasive, it was just one of those days when the words come together and I actually believed that I could win, although lots of people told me you're mad, you won't win this, but we did.” Matt explains, “It was a really intense period of my life because I had just got reelected as the County Councillor and then suddenly we've got Jeremy Corbyn coming up to Lemington to launch the National campaign for Labour.” Matt laughs, “It was unreal, I had friends on holiday texting me as I was on the TV in Greece, and it just seemed crazy. Then, five weeks later, I won.”

Matt continued as County Councillor for the first year as he’d just been elected, “it was really interesting doing the two jobs in parallel, because I had a foot in both camps, you could see the local decisions and you could hear the national government and what they were doing. And so it was very helpful to have that kind of transition period.” Matt explains, “But I was aware at that time, a lot of people were saying he's getting too involved in local politics and needs to get more involved in the national stuff and focus on that. Although when you think about it, most politics that affect people is at a local level.”

As we all realise, politics isn’t an easy business and often decisions are made that seem counterintuitive or maybe not as the majority would like, as Matt explains, “I think there's always a compromise about how you can do both. But it's also about the gumption of people to actually be able to think through alternative options. And what I don't see is as much initiative and breadth of thinking that there could be on some of these challenges that we face.” Matt animatedly tells me, “ But if I oppose something, I don't oppose it just for the sake of it. I mean like the East Whitnash housing project. Why do I oppose it? It's not to oppose housing. We need housing, but you look at the infrastructure, you've got to put in infrastructure, and you have to make sure there are enough school places, access to GPs, and that you will have the road infrastructure and public transport. Now, none of that can be satisfied by what's being proposed.”

Matt believes that as he gets older and gathers more experience of the world, you start seeing things in a completely different way. “That’s when you realise we need to change how we approach everything, from insulating our homes to creating energy and reducing our consumption.”

With a low-carbon home, and being a cyclist and a strong sense of supporting local businesses, Matt and his family tris to do this bit, but Matt says it has been a learning curve, “Early in our relationship my wife ordered me a bag for my bicycle as a birthday present, it was perfect but she had ordered it from Amazon so I asked her to send it back and we went to the local independent bike shop and purchased one there. It’s important we all do our bit where we can; it might be a little harder than jumping online, but it really helps the local economy.”

If the current government decides to run the full course of their term, Matt will have served 12 years as MP for Warwick & Leamington.