Inky fingers and poor eyesight are testament to Chris’s lifelong addiction to newspapers.

As launch editor of his primary school newspaper aged ten, he was soon high on the excitement of journalism and the fumes from the Banda machine.

A decade later Chris trained as a reporter on the daily paper in Bath, where he pestered Van Morrison, took an open-top bus tour with Rolf Harris and reported on the downfall of Tory Party chairman Chris Patten.

At the Evening Press in York Chris saw his titles grow faster than his salary: features editor, leader writer, columnist, diarist, books editor, historian, page designer and, most importantly, pub correspondent.

Chris has travelled undercover with the Boston cops, chronicled Tony Blair’s failure to walk on floodwater, learned to live like a Viking and survived a beer festival named in his honour – all thanks to journalism.

Now a freelance writer and PR, he lives in York with his partner and their two children.