When I was General Secretary of the CWU Banbury meant only one thing to me, and it wasn’t Banbury Cross or any other aspect of this pretty Oxfordshire market town. Banbury meant Elaine Cooke, a telephonist and local Union rep who was a colleague on the Union’s Executive. Here she is in this photo from Saturday evening’s book signing – looking not a day older than when I last saw her 22 years ago.
Elaine wasn’t the only familiar face at the Mill Arts Centre on Saturday.

I was delighted to see Sir Tony Baldry who served the Banbury constituency for 32 years as it’s Conservative MP in the audience as well as another former CWU friend, Denis McWilliams, our former midlands Regional Secretary and a man of great wisdom and erudition. He tells me that he’s currently writing a novel which makes two of us.

All seats were taken on a brilliant evening in the Cotswolds.