An Audience With Kevin Maguire

This was a fairly informal event hosted by The Word, library in South Shields, Tyneside on the 25th May, a date that had been firmly booked in my diary since early March. As I huge fan of this unflinchingly outspoken Trump-hating, anti-monarchist, politically opinionated but lovable “leftie”, this was one date I was not going to miss, even though it cost me a 300-mile round trip to be there!

I've met Kevin only once before, at the Hugh Cudlip lecture in London where he was chosen to give the presentation and after that encounter, I was hooked!

Our hostess for the evening was the very lovely, Anna Foster, from BBC Radio Newcastle and she certainly kept Kevin on his toes, but he answered all her questions with complete honesty and openness and more importantly, without hesitation and for once, it was nice to see him dressed down for the occasion, wearing jeans and trainers and looking very relaxed.

The evening began with questions about his early life and school days. One of six children born into the family, he never considered himself “special” in any way, but he enjoyed his early life and being at school, and considers himself lucky to have been selected to go onto university where he found out that there were definite “class” divisions. He earned himself a degree in Politics. Could this have been the beginning of his anti-establishmentarianism and Republican leanings?

Having his degree would, he thought, be a guarantee of work in his chosen field of journalism, but he was wrong. Having applied for 60 jobs which included one fruitless interview, he moved to London in search of opportunity and for a time was employed as a security guard. Frustrated, but undeterred, he then applied to Cardiff University for a place on a journalism course, and finally, his persistence was rewarded with a three-year job for a newspaper based in Plymouth.

Almost 40 years later, he is rarely off the television and in huge demand from many radio stations, but he admits that BBC Rado Newcastle is his favourite, no doubt because it is close to his beloved South Shields where, he says, his heart belongs. Although Kevin and his wife, the successful novelist, Emma Burstall, live in suburbian Kingston-upon-Thames, when asked if he had ever thought about moving back “home”, he replied that he had but his wife would probably never agree to it, because he would just go back to his roots and spend most of his time in the pub with his mates. So, for now, he visits as often as he can, up to twelve times a year, to catch up with his “mam” and family and friends. Watching him chatting with some of them in the pub after the event, it was very clear to me that this is definitely where he feels the most comfortable and “at home”.

During the course of his one and a half hours of intense scrutiny from Anna, he entertained us with anecdotes and personal recollections of some of the politicians he encounters in the halls of Westminster and the tales he wrote about in his book, “Great Parliamentary Scandals”, that he co-wrote with Mathew Parris, the Conservative MP. Well-known characters like Piers Morgan, Andrew Neal, Boris Johnson, John Prescott and even the new Countess of Sussex were all up for grabs, along with the Duke of Edinburgh to whom he refused, as a matter of principle, to bow, much to the disdain of the Duke. This disdain, is quite obviously mutual, with Kevin stating that they live in a world apart from the common man. “They know little of us, and they care even less”.

He talked about his late father, who was a miner, and the Durham Miner's Gala which is a regular annual jaunt for Kevin and a large number of Labour politicians, including, of course, Jeremy Corbyn. I got the feeling that Corbyn has gone up in Kevin's estimation in the past couple of years, especially after the relative success of the General Election 2017. When I met him in London, he was not sure that Corbyn was the right material for the Labour leadership.

Kevin also made his views clear on Trident – a waste of money, and Terrorism – don't give in to it. When asked if he had ever considered going into politics himself, he told us that Gordon Brown had once asked him to work for his government and that, in his opinion, the next Labour Leader would probably be a woman. Angela Raynor is his current favourite. One got the impression that he would rather be writing about it that actually involved in it.

He discussed his working relationship with his well-known colleague and nemesis, Andrew Pearce, and promised to try to arrange for him to accompany him should he ever come back to The Word for another session. They are obviously the best of mates off-screen despite their political differences of opinion.

Afterwards, I was delighted to come across him in the pub where he was as charming as ever, and although we didn't quite get to exchanging telephone numbers, I feel sure that our paths will cross again very soon. In summary, a very interesting and entertaining couple of hours in the company of an unassuming, highly approachable and “grateful” gentleman who, in his own words, got lucky.

Fame and fortune apart. Mr Maguire is still very much “one of us”. Hopefully, one day he may get his wish and go “home” to South Shields for good, but I am sure he has many more places to visit and people to talk about before he finally lays down his notebook!