I was bored with the work day grind even then!
AGED 11, Paul Hoggins imagined life as a lawyer who has already fallen out of love with his job.
He wrote: ‘The alarm clock goes for the start of another day. Another day of work at the office. How boring all I do is sit reading books . . . Why couldn’t I be a miner instead of a lawjer (sic) (who doesn’t do a thing).’
In the event, he became a journalist, and while he doesn’t remember his childhood ambitions, he recognises his love of language and sardonic outlook in the essay.
‘My wife saw it and laughed and said that explains a lot,’ says Paul, a father-of-three who has four grandchildren. ‘For an 11-year-old there’s quite a dose of cynicism in there. And I always enjoyed creative writing and English.’
Paul grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, living with his four siblings, his mum’s younger half brother and his parents — eight of them squeezed into a three-bedroom council house while his dad worked for Pilkington, the glass manufacturer.
‘I think I got my dad’s graft and my mum’s brightness. In a different time she would have gone to university, but she was a full-time mum until we all got older,’ says Paul. He took a degree in business studies but, as soon as he finished, he followed his older brother to work on a local newspaper. ‘Before my degree, I never had it in my head that I would become a reporter,’ he says. ‘But when a junior reporter’s job came up on the local paper, I never looked back.’ Paul, who confesses he has had a rewarding working life, still lives on Sheppey, with fitness instructor wife Amanda and works part-time at the Daily Mail. One son has followed in his father’s footsteps, one is a carpenter and the third has learning difficulties and lives in a nearby care home.