Why was PR your chosen career?
Coming out of a job in television journalism, I knew that a career working with words was paramount. I moved between several roles in marketing and communications at companies of varying sizes but had always wanted to work in the cut and thrust of an agency where client requirements could be very different from one day to the next. Working on content for several clients in diverse fields is the ideal role for me, as I can really test my mettle on subjects on which I might not necessarily have much knowledge, but about which I can continually learn.
If you hadn’t chosen a career in PR, what would you be doing?
Before I came to my senses and realised that journalism was in fact a career open to people just like me, I was thinking of becoming an English teacher.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
“Just do it. No-one’s going to do it for you.”
If you won the lottery, how would you spend it?
The mortgage in the face of interest rate rises would have to be priority, but aside from that, making sure that the people closest to me were financially comfortable. Maybe a Savile Row suit or two as well and paying someone to do my ironing and cleaning.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Cold-calling people, trying to get them to make an appointment to see a sales representative of a kitchen company, which I did while I was at sixth form. I was threatened with physical violence on several occasions for interrupting Coronation Street and EastEnders. “The computer” that I told them their name and number was on was actually a sheet torn from an old copy of the phone book.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
As a cat dad to mine and my partner’s two-year-old, Bella, I’d love to live her life. Wake up, stretch, a bite to eat, out into the garden, back inside, sleep. Repeat as necessary. Who wouldn’t want such an easy existence?
If you could, would you live forever and why/why not?
On balance, probably. I’m fascinated with social history and how we lived before compared to how we live today as the world changes around us, so it would be really interesting to see what the world would look like in centuries to come. Who knows, in the year 2525 you might even be able to get mobile signal between Heaton Chapel and Stockport on the train.
Who are your top three dream dinner party guests?
I’m taking my maternal grandparents as one guest rather than two, because I’d love to know them as an adult rather than the child I was when they died. Alan Bennett could provide some gentle northern whimsy and I’d talk football with Brian Clough.
