I was born and brought up in Bolton, Lancashire, educated at Bolton School, then went to St Andrews, where I obtained a maths degree. After that, I moved to Edinburgh, where I trained as a Chartered Accountant. Once qualified, I moved to the Peterborough area where I’ve lived ever since.

I was first asked to preach when on a student campaign from St Andrews and that took place in Orkney. I was called on at short notice to preach, but discovered I enjoyed it. I considered training as a Reader when I was in Edinburgh, but did not pursue the call until after Hilary and I were married. We met on Orkney and discovered, while engaged and travelling regularly between our homes in south Lincolnshire and north Suffolk, that both of us had felt a call to Reader ministry, but neither of us had pursued it. Once we were married in 1983, we trained as Readers together. Producing two of our three children while also working, studying and writing essays meant we took longer than we should have done to complete the course, but we were licensed together in 1989.

In 1994, I got a new job with a firm in London and started 23 years of daily commuting to work from Peterborough to London. Over the course of those years I worked for two accountancy firms in a variety of roles. I retired at the end of 2016.

At the second firm, I chaired the Christian network for four years. This was immensely rewarding and opened many interesting opportunities, including helping me to understand some of the challenges and opportunities facing Readers.

Outside the world of work, I am keen on classical music, and understanding the relationship between the Christian faith and science. I am a life member of the National Trust and joined the RSPB when a teenager. In other words, I enjoy life outside and well away from the computer.