About James Leavey: Biography
The earliest photo of myself smoking - aged 20, drama student at Mountview Theatre School in London, given the role of a cigar-smoking producer in Noel Coward's play. The play was directed by my TV acting teacher, John Sichel, who worked for Lew Grade at ATV producing the Thriller series - and a TV version of Twelth Night starring Alec Guinness as Malvolio, Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch, and Tommy Steele as Feste the clown. I was asked to study Guinness and given the part of Malvolio at Mountview. The beard wasn't real - ATV makeup made it for me - somebody nicked it from my makeup box a year later.
I wasn't always best known as the smoker-friendly journalist who also writes about sea cruises. Attached is a 5Mb PDF which is a scanned version of the Retro Gamer magazine article about Firebird Software, including my role in setting it up, which was published last month (April 2011, Issue no. 88).
For those of you who have played computer games, this is the story of one of the most popular British games publishers of the 1980s. I've still got most of the games I wrote scenarios for...they'll probably end up, like me and the ashtrays, in a museum somewhere!
Read: http://www.jamesleavey.info/rg-firebird.pdf
Journalist, broadcaster, raconteur, marketing and PR consultant, professional smoker, speech consultant, photographer, cook, cat cuddler, cleaner and washer-up...
The son of a Dublin-born mother, and a German U-Boat officer - who was captured by the British in World War II - James was born in Beckenham, Kent, England, in December 1947, instead of Berlin where his father disappeared to and hasn't been heard of since.
He then had the misfortune (or luck, depending on your point of view) to grow up in Penge, a nondescript suburb of South London, in the 1950s and early 1960s, round the corner from Bill Wyman and one of the Great Train robbers.
After a less than satisfying schooling, most of which he avoided by going on the run to the nearest cinema or football field, his first article was published in 1963 by Southern Africa, a weekly magazine based in Fleet Street. He started working there as an office boy at the age of 15, having left school in Penge with no qualifications whatsoever. At that time he was the youngest reporter working in Fleet Street, having previously been informed by his former headmaster that he would never become a journalist because he couldn't spell "chrysanthemum".
He also acted as a sub editor for the same publisher, working on African World, Rhodesia & Nyasaland Today, and the Royal Commonwealth Society's African Affairs magazine.
Over 50 jobs in his first 27 years
Due mostly to the fact that he had no formal qualifications, he then got side-tracked from mainstream journalism for 27 years, during which time he had over 50 jobs.
These included: theatre barman, usher, cloakroom attendant, lift-boy, coconut-ice and crystallised fondant maker in Barrett's sweet factory, office messenger, postal clerk, clothes sorter in a steam laundry, art bookshop manager and hospital porter. He also organised subscriptions to international arts and photographic magazines on behalf of Britain's art schools, universities and museums at the London Art Bookshop ( whose customers included architects such as James Stirling, painters such as David Hockney, Eduardo Palaozzi and every other major British artist).
He was also a copywriter for an advertising agency, junior clerk at the London College of Music - whose principal, at the time, was Andrew Lloyd Webber's father - stockroom assistant, assistant company secretary, and, for two hours, a telex operator.
In the 1960s, he was a production assistant for WPN & Advertisers' Review - since renamed Campaign. He also worked for The Observer (where he did the Personal column), International Models' Yearbook, The Glasgow Herald, Outdoor Advertising, Point of Purchase Marketing, Stock Exchange Gazette, The Statist - a now defunct rival to The Economist, Scottish Field, World Banking Survey, The Climber, The Skier and the Paisley Daily Express.
In addition, he worked on the ABC Film Review (as a member of the Warner-Pathe Film Distributors' publicity department). During that time he was involved with the promotion of My Fair Lady and other films. Actually he just sent out the posters and the Pathe Pictorial stuff to all the UK cinemas every week. These posters are now worth a lot of money, but sadly his mother threw them all out.
He was also a book-keeper for a Mayfair wig company, sorted out the dead letters for Royal Insurance, made turkey sandwiches (and sneezed all over them for he had the flu) for Maggie Smith in a Knightsbridge delicatessen, organised tours of the UK via chauffeur-driven Daimlers, washed glasses (and broke most of them) for a Piccadilly Circus pub, sold toys and gardening furniture and was also a furniture delivery man for Peter Jones in Sloane Square.
He took sports results on Saturday afternoons for the Reg Hayter's Sports Agency off Fleet Street, spent two days as a double-glazing demonstrator for Selfridges, tidied up the offices of TV Times in Tottenham Court Road just after they moved, and, not least, spent about nine months refuelling and selling fine cigarette lighters (and the occasional £20,000 emerald necklace) for Asprey, the Royal jewellers in New Bond Street, Mayfair.
Trainee actor
In the late 1960s James trained as an actor, part-time, first at the City Literary Institute off Drury Lane, and then at Mountview Theatre School in North London.
He was a member of a company of 30 student actors who toured the USA, coast-to-coast, for six weeks in 1970 (the first such tour by a British drama school) with a repertory which included Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade, and Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, Edward Bond's Saved and Jean Genet's The Maids.
During this tour, he was invited to address 2,000 University of California students on the art of comedy acting alongside a young Pakistani actor whose English was almost non-existent as were his communication skills.
When he returned to the UK, he briefly joined the Tower Theatre in Islington and appeared in A Studio Hamlet (as Laertes and Guildenstern), Juno and the Paycock - (where he met Mrs Sean O'Casey) and other plays.
His last proper stage performance was in Samuel Beckett's one-man play, Krapp's Last Tape - a role he discussed recently with fellow Krapp-performers, Albert Finney and John Hurt. He has since appeared, briefly, in the British low budget, hit Jewish comedy movie, Leon the Pig Farmer (on which he wrote a full page article for the Daily Mirror).
In 1999, he was a guest actor in the first, and probably last, London performance of Molly by Mulligan. This was a musical by his friend, the British cartoonist, Frank Dickens, creator of Bristow - which he helped, indirectly, launch as a successful BBC Radio 4 sitcom by bringing Frank Dickens and his late friend Jonathan James Moore, BBC Radio head of comedy, together. The series starred the late Michael Williams, husband of Dame Judi Dench.
James has also worked in the bars and as an usher for many West End Theatres and as a stagehand for the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre at the Old Vic, English National Opera and on several of the original famous West End musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music and Cabaret (he was paid to carry a box of matches and light Judi Dench's cigarettes).
In 1969, he was the Academy Cinema's part-time doorman for the first Buster Keaton Festival in Britain where he met Mrs Buster Keaton, and Lilian Gish (who attended a special celebrity screening of DW Griffiths' The Birth of a Nation). The Academy, whose three cinemas in Oxford Street were all non-smoking by the time it closed in 1986, was owned and run by George Hoellering, a former Hungarian film director and friend of TS Eliot.
From 1974 to 1975, James was trained as an English teacher, part-time (evenings and weekends) at Sidney Webb College, where he was also vice-president of the Polytechnic of Central London - now University of Westminster - evening students' union. It was at that time he was encouraged by his English tutor, Mel Gooding, to write short stories, comedy sketches, and poems, some of which were published in thriller writer John Harvey's Slow Dancer magazine, and the Polytechnic of Central London's student magazine, Nexus.
Post Office/BT
Meanwhile, during the day from 1974-1975, he worked as a clerical officer for the Post Office, which was eventually split into two businesses in 1984, when its telecommunications division - now known as BT - was privatised.
In 1975, he became the Post Office's First Aid Administration Officer for central London, responsible for training staff (including those employed in the Post Office Tower - now the BT Tower) to deal with, among other things, casualties of the IRA's mainland bombing campaign.
In January 1980, he returned to journalism, first as deputy editor of the Post Office's in-house computing magazine, Database, and eventually by writing articles and reviews for many other BT and Post Office in-house publications.
This all eventually culminated in his creation and successful launch, as managing editor, of BT's first major customer magazine, Business Communications.
Firebird Software
In February 1984, he became one of the pioneers of the UK's embryonic computer games industry when he started testing early computer games for a downloading division of BT called Gamestar.
He was then promptly invited to join the small team that set up BT's highly successful computer games publishing company - Firebird Software - which became a major force in the early days of home computing. James named the company Firebird, after he discovered there was an intellectual property rights problem with the brand's original name, Firefly. He also wrote the copy for Europe's first satellite advertisement (transmitted by BT in Europe - it told the world Firebird was coming and encouraged programmers to send him new games). Less than a year later he was given a special award by Home Computing Weekly for the first British software publishing company to sell over 100,000 copies of a single game: Booty.
Firebird insisted on producing original, innovative computer games written in machine code rather than the usual BASIC and printing screen shots on the front of its packs so that players could see what they were getting for their money. They also cut the retail price of games by 75 per cent and injected a healthy dose of serious, professional marketing into the early days of what was to become one of the most successful business sectors in the world.
Firebird's fine quality, good value for money games, whose titles included Booty, Elite, and Don't Buy This, immediately topped the UK charts in every computer mode and then went on to sell throughout Europe, Australasia and America.
BT's mainstream PR and marketing
As a result, James was poached to become the first public relations manager for BT's National Networks division, responsible for all PR and below-the-line activities such as exhibitions, direct marketing and conferences. Among other things, he helped launch the LinkLine (toll-free: 0800 and 0845) and Premium Call (0898 etc) numbers and originated one of the most successful direct mail-shots ever (22 per cent personal response from the UK's top 1000 companies, a hit rate previously unheard of). He also became the first person to fire the sales promotion division of Saatchi & Saatchi.
He was then invited to join a newly formed division handling all of BT's advertising and PR, and was the first person in the UK to co-ordinate two major British PR agencies (Shandwick and the Quentin Bell Organisation) on one major account: BT's £2 billion per annum network modernisation programme.
A year or so later, he was invited to become British Telecom International's first customer events manager and, eventually deputy international sponsorship manager.
During this period he wrote BTI's first international events strategy, and administered BT's involvement in the 1989-1990 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. Among many others, he worked with the late renowned yachtsman, Peter Blake, skipper of Steinlager, on whose yacht the first still colour pictures were beamed around the world via BT's specially designed on-board system, and network.
Over 100 publications
Since going freelance in 1990 - following 16 years in British Telecom and the Post Office - he has written articles for over 100 consumer and non-consumer publications. These include:
Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, The European, Belfast Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, Radio Times, The Oldie, Literary Review, BBC Holidays magazine, Motor Boat & Yachting, ES magazine, Evening Standard, Time Out, Stuff for Men, Midweek, Arguments & Facts International, Off Licence News, Wine & Spirits International, Dept of Trade and Industry's magazines: Briefing on Britain (for America), and Taitoshi News (for Japan), Taylors Corporate Scotland (1993 and 1994 editions - telecoms overview), Teletext (Oracle, Ceefax - sport and leisure), Thomas Cook's magazines: Travel Brief and Communique, Press Association, Hilton Guest magazine, Hyatt International magazine, Cigar Style magazine, Drive On, Classic Cigar Boom, Claridges Book of the Century, Heathrow International Traveller magazine, Hurlingham Polo Association Book of the Season (2002 and 2003), The Wealth Collection, Living History, Wealth Management Agenda, Hotel Management International, World Cruise Industry Review, Intelligent Build and Design Innovations, Classic Travel, Packaging News, European Businessman, European Business, Hospital Management International, Medical Device Developments, International Journal of Patient Safety, World Super Yacht, Minted, Best of British Sport 2005, SquareMeal, Wine, Superyacht World, Whisky, ABTA TravelSpirit, ABTA magazine, Isle of Wight County Press, Cowes Beacon, Boz (Pizza Express jazz magazine).
Inward Investment for the UK and Northern Ireland
In addition he researched and wrote the Dept of Trade and Industry Invest in Britain Bureau's 1992-93 and 1993-94 annual reports which helped promote UK trade around the world.
In November 1994, he was appointed launch editor of Taylors Corporate Northern Ireland, the first major independent business guide (260 pages) to the Province, successfully launched in Washington and Belfast in summer 1995, which has helped attract billions of pounds of inward investment into Northern Ireland.
As a result, he was appointed chief judge of the annual IPR/BT Northern Ireland Press and Broadcast Awards (1999-2007); fellow judges over the years including John Simpson, Eddie Mair and Bruno Brooks.
Tobacco writer
In October 1996, his first book - The FOREST Guide to Smoking in London was published by Quiller Press to international acclaim being reviewed in Time magazine, Pravda, USA Today, International Tribune, Die Welt, Playboy, Marie Claire, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Times (who described it as "the most politically incorrect book of the month") and The Independent (who described it as "the Das Kapital of the Smoke and be damned brigade").
His second book, The FOREST Guide to Smoking in Scotland, was launched successfully (including 2 pages in the The Sunday Times) at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival.
In July 1995, James created, launched, wrote and edited an occasional cigar newsletter, The Humidor, for JJ Fox (St James's) Ltd, which was distributed to 20,000 of the world's richest and most famous cigar aficionados via Harrods, Selfridges, JJ Fox at 19 St James's Street in London, and Dublin airport. He wrote The Harrods Pocket Guide to Fine Cigars, and copy for the Fox website, which received nine internet awards. In March 1996 he helped write and launch Kapp & Peterson's new smoker's lifestyle magazine, Peterson's, in Dublin.
Punch columnist
He also wrote a regular column in Punch called 'Sharing an Ashtray' for over 15 months, until the magazine folded in June 2002. Celebrities he interviewed for this included:
Jerry Springer, John Simpson, Sir James Galway, Sir John Mortimer, Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Sir Patrick Moore, Sir Christopher Frayling (rector, Royal College of Art), Al Alvarez (poet and poker player), June Brown (Dot Cotton), Barry Cryer, Bernard Manning, Russ Abbot, Lalo Schifrin (who wrote the music for 'Bullitt' and 'Mission Impossible'), Trevor Baylis, Kevin Laffan (creator of 'Emmerdale Farm'), John Entwistle (The Who), Geno Washington, Su Pollard, Bruno Brookes, Henk de Vries (founder of the Bulldog, Holland's first Cannabis café, in Amsterdam), David Dickinson ('Bargain Hunt'), Peter de Savary (who owns Skibo Castle, where Madonna married Guy Ritchie), Sir Frank Kermode (distinguished literary critic and Shakespearian scholar), Burt Kwouk ('Cato' - The Pink Panther films), Tracey Emin, Sir Christopher Lee, Roy Hudd, Nigel Planer, Rolf Harris (ardent anti-smoker!), Laurence Marks (co-creator and writer of 'Birds of a Feather', 'Goodnight Sweetheart' etc), Sir Colin Davis, Sir Tom Courtney, Joseph Connolly (best selling author), Kinky Friedman (American politically incorrect author and singer-songwriter), Sir Jimmy Savile, Antony Worrall Thompson, and Peter Riva (grandson of Marlene Dietrich).
Radio and TV appearances
In recent years, he has broadcast on many radio and TV programmes around the world, including Sky One, Fox News, Middle East Business Television, Financial Times TV, BBC 24 Hours, American National Radio and America's Lighten Up! (presented by Matt 'Mr Cigar' Allan). He was a regular contributor, during 1999, 2000, and 2002 to this hour-long programme broadcast live coast-to-coast across America every Saturday via the Cable Radio Network to 26 million listeners. More recently, in September 2009, James was a guest on this show alongside Chicago's drummer and Whose Line Is it Anyway star, Ryan Stiles.
Other appearances on radio and TV include: CNN, Dominican Republic National TV, Cuban National Radio, BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio Scotland, South African National Radio, BBC World Service, BBC Radio London, GLR, Liberty Radio, BB South, BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland, ITN News, Isle of Wight Radio and Carlton TV's London Tonight, Fox News and BBC2's Horizon. The latter was a special programme on smoking 'We love cigarettes', recorded in ten countries on 20 January 2006, with narration by Bill Nighy and broadcast on 29 June 2006).
James has also contributed to BBC Radio 4's Breakaway, Going Places and Farming Today and been featured twice on BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week). In addition he has appeared on Channel Four's Collector's Lot, BBC2's Arena (arts programme, on cigars), BBC Radio 2 Fag Ends (an hour-long documentary on the history of smoking), Channel Four's The Jerry Sadowitz Show, Channel 4's Banzai, and BBC1's The Jack Dee Happy Hour, among others.
Back in 1991, he was the press officer of the world's last Soviet Trade & Industry Exhibition which opened in London on the day the USSR announced it would cease to exist, which involved a lot of crisis PR. He also appeared on the Jonathan Ross show with Lily Savage who was making his first appearance on mainstream British TV.
Virgin Holidays Cruises, and Cowes
James is currently a regular contributor to the Virgin Holidays Cruises website (for whom he has written a weekly blog since November 2008) and an occasional contributor to Isle of Wight County Press, and Tobacco Reporter (USA).
He also writes occasional blogs for The K.G. section of the Berry Bros & Rudd website, for whom he created several 21st century Wodehousian characters.
James has the distinction of being the last person to work with Dennis Main Wilson, producer of The Goons, Hancock, Citizen Smith, Marty (Feldman), and Till Death Do Us Part) - and was commissioned by BBC Radio to write a new sitcom, No Place Like Home. He also co-write a Hollywood script of this comedy for JK Rowling's agent, Chris Little, but he got sidetracked... and worked closely for a few years with Evening Standard cartoonist, Frank Dickens.
In 1999 he wrote the sleeve notes for two World Music CDs: The Cuban Revolution and Cigar Box (Cuban smoking songs), produced by his friend, Jan Olofsson (Sweden's first pop star - and world famous Rock photographer)
Education
St Anthony's secondary modern, Penge, London SE20 - 1958-1962
Penge Evening Institute, 1963 - Pitman's shorthand, and typing
Polytechnic of North London, 1965-1966 - print production and typographical design
City Literary Institute, London, 1967-8: Acting, speech and dance
Pulteney College, Soho, London - GCE O-level English Language and English Literature - 1971
Mountview Theatre School, London, 1968-1970: Acting course (part-time)
Pineapple Studios, Covent Garden, 1970: Modern dance
Pitman's College, London - shorthand, 1980
London College of Printing - part-time course in magazine journalism, 1981
The Industrial Society, London - magazine journalism, press photography, 1980
The Institute of Marketing, Cookham - corporate marketing and PR and presentation skills, 1981
BT Management College - marketing foundation course, 1984, advanced marketing, 1985, advanced PR strategy and tactics, 1985
BBC Radio School, London - editing and DAT course, 1994
The Radio and TV School, Newbury, Oxfordshire, October 2001: Radio presenter's course.
Independent PR and marketing
Over the last 20 years he has occasionally acted as an independent PR and marketing consultant. His clients include:
Crown Agents - PR plan, development of promotional material
United Kingdom Offshore Boating Association - media relations for 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1995 powerboat racing seasons
Thomas Cook Travel Management -newsletter consultancy, corporate relations - PR strategy (in 2007 I will be revamping some of their international city guides)
JJ Fox (St James's) Ltd - PR and Marketing consultancy - which included liaising with the marketing and press departments of Harrods, Simpson's in the Strand, Selfridges,.1996-2001 2008, 2009
BT Telecom Museum/Telecom Showcase - PR strategy
DMG (Daily Mail Group) Publications - media strategy
BT (Marine) Ltd - PR strategy for the cable ships
The Barry Martin Group - for whom I helped set up organise the world's last Soviet Trade & Industry Exhibition, London, 1991 - crisis PR - also ran the press office
System 3 Arcade Software Ltd - press and public relations for computer games
Andromeda Publishing - Eastern European media relations
Community Systems (part of North London TEC) - PR, seminars for motivating long-term unemployed managers and professionals
National Museum of Cartoon Art, London - media relations and PR consultancy (looking after the Giles 50th exhibition, among others)
Motor Boat & Yachting Festival of Power, Cowes, 1994 and 1996 - media relations (ran press office)
Isle of Wight Tourism - National Boules Championships, 1998
Family Holiday Association (registered charity)- PR consultancy
Citigate PR - speechwriting
Quentin Bell PR - copywriting.
The Tea Council - speechwriting, 2001.
The PR Agency, Belfast - consultancy, 2001 and 2002
CGars Ltd - copywriting, 2006-9, 2010 - to date
Berry Bros & Rudd - speech and international marketing consultancy, 2005, 2006, 2007. Blog writing from 2010.
Theatre work
London theatre productions he has worked on (front of house and backstage) include:
Aldwych Theatre
A Midsummer Night's Dream - RSC, Shakespeare, world famous Peter Brook production
Old Times - RSC, Harold Pinter play, starring Colin Blakely, Dorothy Tutin and Vivien Merchant
Bridewell Theatre - formerly the Tower Theatre):
Molly by Mulligan - musical by Frank Dickens, creator of Bristow
Duke of York Theatre
Relatively Speaking - Alan Ayckbourn's first comedy hit, starring Celia Johnson, Michael Horden, Richard Briers and Jennifer Hilary, and eventually Colin Gordon.
Mrs Mouse, Are you Within - Frank Marcus, starring Barbara Leigh-Hunt
The Duel - starring Michael Bryant, Peter Wyngarde, and Nyree Dawn Porter
Hay Fever - Noel Coward, starring Celia Johnson and Wilfrid Hyde White
English National Opera
At the London Coliseum and the company's West Hampstead rehearsal studios. James worked as member of stage crew on many London productions from late 1980s to mid-1990s, including Tosca.
Haymarket Theatre
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde, starring Flora Robson and Daniel Massey
Her Majesty's Theatre
Fiddler on the Roof - the original West End production of this musical, which eventually starred Alfie Bass and Miriam Karlin
Trent Park Polytechnic Theatre, north London
Krapp's Last Tape - Samuel Beckett, one man play.
Mountview Theatre School productions
Hamlet - performed in London's The George Inn's outdoor theatre, in Southwark, and on tour in the USA
Live Like Pigs - John Arden
Marat/Sade - Peter Weiss, performed on tour in USA
Mother Courage and Her Children - Bertolt Brecht, performed on tour in USA
The Government Inspector - Gogol
Roots - Arnold Wesker, directed by John Sichel, who was producing ATV's Thriller series, and Twelfth Night (with Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson and Tommy Steele) for ATV. James was given the Guinness part - Malvolio - as part of his training TV acting. Playing Jimmy Beales in Roots was his first performance as an actor and it was watched by several members of the National Theatre, including Judi Dench and Edward Harwicke, who at one point gave him an ovation
Present Laughter - Noel Coward, directed by John Sichel
Queen Elizabeth Slept Here - Talbot Rothwell, who wrote the Carry-on films
Romeo and Juliet - appeared as the clown, apothecary, Tybalt's aide, and performed on tour in USA.
The Gehana of the Bone - the world premiere by Jesse Lasky Jr (who wrote the Naked City TV series and Cecil B DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments). and his wife, Pat Silver.
National Theatre at the Old Vic
A Long Day's Journey Into Night - Laurence Olivier
As You Like It - all-male production
Love's Labour's Lost - directed by Laurence Olivier
Much Ado About Nothing - world famous production directed by Franco Zefferelli
Oedipus - Seneca, directed by Peter Brook and starring John Gielgud
The Bacchae - starring Martin Shaw and Constance Cummings
Triple Bill - three one act plays, including In His Own Write based on John Lennon's writings, directed by Victor Spinetti
Palace Theatre
The Sound of Music - original London production
Two Cities - a musical based on the Tale of Two Cities, starring Edward Woodward
Cabaret - original London production starring Judi Dench and Barry Denham
Prince Charles Theatre
Little Me - a musical starring Bruce Forsythe
Tower Theatre, Islington
A Studio Hamlet - played Laertes and Guildenstern
Juno and the Paycock - Sean O'Casey - played IRA mobiliser and other parts (and met Mrs Sean O'Casey, who was very complimentary about the performance)
The Little Man is Off on His Own - world premiere
Wyndham Theatre
Wise Child (Simon Gray)
Voluntary radio
In 2002-2003, James was a regular weekly volunteer radio presenter for Great Ormond Street Hospital's radio station - Radio GOSH, and worked on several fund-raising events for the world famous children's hospital- with, among others, Michael Palin. During that same period, he was also a volunteer radio presenter, head of ward visitors and acting station manager for Hospital Radio Barnet, and voluntary reader for The Open University's audio visual department.
From June 2003-March 2004 he was a regular presenter at Isle of Wight Hospital Radio in Newport. And a regular volunteer community radio presenter on Angel Radio Isle of Wight from May 2004 to May 2007.
Clubs/trade associations/unions
Gerry's Club, Soho. Former member of the Arts Theatre Club (London), London Press Club, Island Sailing Club, and the British Legion. He was also a former Member of The Institute of Public Relations (MIPR), British Association of Industrial Editors, SOGAT, and National Union of Journalists.
James is the United Kingdom Regional Director for Citizens Freedom Alliance, Inc. and The Smoker's Club. Contact here for media requests.
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