 His father worked 45 years in the steelworks in Templeborough (Rotherham) until the steel industry was wiped out during the Thatcher years.Educated at Nether Edge (which became) Abbeydale Boys’ Grammar School, he trained as a teacher in Birmingham and taught in that city in the 1960s.Later he studied for a BA at the University of Wales, subsequently becoming a part-time university tutor.