The woman whose book I’m signing will I hope be the next West of England Mayor.

Labour’s Helen Godwin is standing to succeed Dan Norris, who was the first metro-mayor in this new combined authority area covering Bristol, Bath and Somerset. Last July Dan ousted Jacob Rees-Mogg in North East Somerset to become a Member of Parliament, hence the vacancy.

I was honoured to be asked by Helen to kick-off her campaign at an event where I was interviewed by the brilliant Stella Tincknell about my biography of Harold Wilson in Bristol on Monday night.

Helen is a local girl and her extended family was out in force as were supporters from across the sub-region determined to see this warm, intelligent and dedicated public servant elected to be their representative on May 1st.