The youngest son of a headteacher I was born in Bangor and brought up in the small Welsh coastal town of Pwllheli. I went to college in Liverpool, studying Geography and English, before enrolling for teacher training in Manchester. Having decided that I was not one for shaping young minds, I returned to Wales to work at the local Butlin’s holiday camp, doing everything from chalet allocations to scrubbing dirty grill pans in a baby bath full of tepid water in the off season. ​