40 years of meeting inspirational people in Chesterfield and interviewing celebrities such as Tony Benn and Peter Andre for the Derbyshire Times

Of all the places in all the world, what attracted me to Derbyshire nearly 200 miles away from my family home in Northumberland?

Blame Sheffield....the place where I'd done journalism block release training with a lecturer who had previously worked on the Derbyshire Times and shared such great stories about working in Chesterfield that it sounded right up my street.

Coincidentally, that lecturer's son was working as a photographer at the Derbyshire Times when I joined and was to accompany me on my first assignment. The tip-off for the job came in while I was at the editor's house on the Sunday being treated to a welcome tea. Briefing me on the task, the editor told me to meet the photographer in the car park the following morning..."You can't miss him" he said, "he looks just like his dad."

At 8am the following morning, we set out on our mission.The job was to cover a road protest in Doe Lea where campaigners were demanding a speed limit and threatening to lie down in the road to make their point. Exciting stuff but I can remember being brought back down to earth by the news editor saying to me 'what time do you call this,' when I walked into the office for the first time to meet my new colleagues at 11am!

That same week, I was sent to cover a fire at the New Drum estate in Shirebrook and was taken there by one of my fellow journalists, who I guess had been asked to do so in case I got lost in unfamiliar territory.

I returned to Shirebrook several times during my first year to cover the impact that the miners' strike had and recollect being in awe of the wives who were running soup kitchens to ensure their community didn’t go hungry.

There was no such thing as a smoke-free office back in the mid Eighties. A cloud of smoke would hang over typewriters at the Derbyshire Times base on Station Road where colleagues puffed on cigarettes and pipes. Each paragraph of our liovingly crafted copy had to be typed on single sheets of paper, taken by hand to sub-editors and then despatched by metal tube across the yard to the print team. There was alway a sense of excitement on Thursday when the finished product rolled off the on-site newspaper presses.

Having worked in three Derbyshire Times offices in various locations around town, I’m now writing articles on a computer in my back bedroom and keeping in daily contact with my bosses through Zoom calls and emails.

In this industry what goes around comes around. I started the Number 1 music page years ago to give unsigned talent a voice and after a break of several years, I’m writing about music again although the popular Band of the Year competition which I co-founded is no more.

Looking back I've so many memorable experiences to draw on - from interviewing the inspirational Tony Benn during his campaign to be elected Chesterfield MP to interviewing fellow candidate Screaming Lord Sutch in a chip shop.

Some of my favourite interviews have been with celebrities such as Last of the Summer Wine actor Peter Sallis who talked to me on the phone for nearly two hours and the former EastEnders actor Leslie Grantham. I've interviewed Peter Andre at the Aquarius nightclub when he was promoting his chart-topping single Mysterious Girl, Bronski Beat in the dressing room at the Winding Wheel Theatre, Roachford in the back of a tour bus and Radio 1 DJ Simon Bates in his car.

But enough of the name dropping. Some of the best interviewees are those who haven't lit up television screens or music charts. They are the people who have lived in Chesterfield all their lives and have a vast knowledge of events and places that have shaped our town. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting a 100-year-old woman who has never moved out of New Whittington and worked until she was 80.

I doubt that I'll be working until I'm an octogenarian but, like that inspirational centenarian, I am proud to call Chesterfield my home.

It makes me smile to think that I told the first editor of eight who have supported and suffered me over four decades that I’d only be staying for a year!