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MPs, AUTHOR AND FIRE CHIEF ON SYNERGY
Feb 16 2012 12:00 AM | John W. SNRG in Local News
An award-winning professional writer, Northumberland’s new fire chief and two MPs are among dozens of guests who have agreed to appear on a new community radio station next month.Author and former BBC radio and TV journalist Barbara Henderson, Alex Bennett Head of the county fire and rescue service and MPs Ronnie Campbell and Ian Lavery are featured in Synergy’s packed programme schedule.
The station, which will be broadcasting to south east Northumberland on 87.7FM and on-line on www.synergyradio.co.uk, begins its programmes on Saturday March 3.
Over the four weeks of broadcasting Barbara will cover a wide range of topics.
“I hope I can be of help to people who are either thinking of writing just for their own enjoyment or who wish to specialise, say, in historical writing or writing for children.
“I’ll also be covering the difficulties of getting your work into print, the dangers of ‘vanity’ publishing and the opportunities of getting work published on-line.”
Married with three children Barbara, a former reporter on the Journal and Evening Chronicle, left the BBC in 2008 to concentrate on writing. She has won several prizes for short stories and her book ‘The Serpent House’ was short listed for the 2010 Times – Chicken House award for best children’s book.
Barbara is currently working as a part time lecturer in journalism, and creative non-fiction at Northumbria University, And she is in the final stages of a PhD in creative writing at Newcastle University where she is being mentored by prolific author Jackie Kay MBE.
It was in January 2012 that Alex Bennett was appointed Chief Fire and Rescue Officer for Northumberland after a spell as acting Chief. He’ll be describing life as the man in charge of the county’s community and local fire stations and teams of retained and full-time fire fighters.
Ronnie Campbell has represented Blyth since 1987. A former miner, Ronnie – described by parliamentary diarist Simon Hoggart as ‘an old fashioned leftie’ - has occasionally ruffled feathers in parliament. He opposed his own government’s decision to go to war with Iraq and was once ordered out of the Commons for calling a Tory frontbencher a hypocrite.
Ashington-born Ian Lavery, also a former miner, who succeeded Arthur Scargill as NUM President in 2002, was elected MP for Wansbeck in 2010. His mining career started as an apprentice at the former Lynemouth colliery. He was very active during the 1984/85 miners’ strike.
