I recently watched a series on the BBC iPlayer called A Life In Ten Pictures where the premise is to take a famous dead person and tell their life story in 10 significant photographs. It has included people like: Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Ella Fitzgerald, Carrie Fisher and John Lennon. It is worth a watch as it proved quite interesting.

So I decided on a self-indulgent exercise and look back through the archive and put together a series of photos which marked significant or memorable moments in my life. And let me assure you I am very much still in the land of the living. And remember constructive feedback is always appreciated.

I suppose this was a significant milestone as it was the start of my final year at school and the rest of my life lay ahead of me with a range of opportunities before me. If I am being honest I did not really know what I wanted to do and I ended up studying electrical engineering. I mean the job option of journalist was never mentioned during our careers lessons and it would be another five years before I got my first proper camera. Having said that I was reasonably good at English which is one of the requirements for being a reporter. I must admit that I look unbelievably young in this photo.

It was early 1989 that I decided to have a go at fencing and heard there was a club, called Harlequins, in Sunderland where one of my friends went every Friday evening. If I am being honest I had always enjoyed watching swashbuckling films and it was good to get the chance of actually give it a go myself. I did enjoy it and even bought my own kit and started competing in local competitions.

Having said that I usually would get knocked out in the first round which gave me the chance of competing in what was known as the Consolation Plate. It was good to have the chance of fencing against different fencers and there was a good atmosphere at the events.

My best performance was when I reached the third round of the Tyneside Open Foil competition in November 1990. However my success was cut short when I was drawn against a guy called Henry De Silva. My youthful enthusiasm convinced me that I would win it – I mean he was probably the same age as I am now and he was a big barrel-chested guy. But, for every point, he would charge at me very quickly and I found it impossible to stop him winning the hits. It was only later when I was in a secondhand bookshop in London when I picked up a book about the history of fencing and noticed the author was the man himself – Henry De Silva. So never judge a book by its cover eh?

While I was studying photojournalism in Sheffield we got the chance to hop on the P&O ferry from Hull to Bruges and travel back the following evening. It was a fun trip but I think it would be stretching it to say it was my first foreign assignment. During the trip we had to do portraits of the various staff working on board the ferry as well as doing shots in and around Bruges which is a beautiful medieval city and well worth the visit. This shot was taken in one of the squares in the city centre.

I was lucky to get onto the course and it took two attempts – there were 13 places and around 1300 people applied each year. The first year I suspect I did not get the job because my portfolio needed improvement but mainly because when I turned up for the interview I was asked by course leader, Paul Delmar, where was my camera? It was a valid question and a valuable lesson for me. These days you always have a camera with you because you always carry a mobile phone but back then it was a different story.

I learned a lot during my year in Sheffield and it really honed my skills and prepared me for work in a newspaper photography department – although, by my own admission, I still had a lot to learn. And we did produce a Xmas card which almost got the course banned by the college principal. And, 30 years later, a few of us got back together for a reunion in Sheffield in September 2021. It was good to see people again and it was good to see how their careers had worked out as we traded our various “war stories”. Not everyone was still in journalism and one was even a published author.

In 2004 I got the chance to travel to the Netherlands for my first foreign assignment covering the commemorations of the 60th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. Once again I was to travel by the P&O ferry from Hull and we would visit various places associated with the ill-fated campaign. At the time I was working as a reporter at the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph and one of my colleagues, who was unable to make the trip, asked if I was interested in going? I got to know a veteran, Arthur Sobey, who served with the 1st British Airborne Division when he parachuted towards the Ginkel Heath drop zone on September 17, 1944 and was due to make the return trip.

It was good to hear his memories and he was proud to sit with other comrades on the famous John Frost Bridge on September 16, 2004. During the conflict they were ordered to retake the town of Arnhem but unfortunately they were taken prisoner just half a mile from the bridge. He told of the forced march, where they had to eat horse head soup to survive, and he eventually was detained at Stalag 11B near Limberg.

It was a good experience for me as we would file daily reports and photos from the hotel after attending each day’s planned events. There were several reporters and photographers from local papers, as well as a crew from ITN, and each had an Arnhem veteran. As I did not have a work laptop we sort of took over the hotel’s business centre to send our work back home. In the end it made for a nice series of articles which is a good record of the trip.

I have always quite enjoyed working on articles with veterans because I feel it is important to put on the record what they had to endure. And you could clearly see that the Dutch people still felt eternal gratitude to the veterans to this day. I did hear from my mam that my late father read the reports and he was impressed that I had written them so I reckon I had made him proud.

Helmand was another assignment I got by accident because the chief reporter of the Yorkshire Post, who was originally meant to go, broke his leg and was unable to travel. I was at the Scarborough Evening News at the time and was asked to go instead. It was a strange experience dealing with the Army getting the kit I needed such a flak jacket, helmet and army issue Bergen rucksack. After I returned I did see the health and safety assessment which ran to hundreds of pages and I was informed that the extra insurance was a few hundred quid.

However, the whole trip could have been scuppered because I still had not received the visa and there was a desperate call to the Afghanistan embassy shortly before the trip pleading that they made sure it was put in the post in time. It did arrive on the Saturday and I was due to set off on the Sunday.

I was due to travel to RAF Brize Norton to fly to Kandahar, after just three hours sleep, and I think I was the only civilian on the aircraft. But it was an eye opener as we were due to land we were asked to shield the windows and put on our body armour and helmets. I remember thinking: “What the fuck have you got yourself into this time?”

I stayed in Kandahar initially and was sharing a room with a reporter and photographer from the Sunday Times who had just returned from the recently liberated town of Masa Qala. It was late and I think I woke them up. I had also made the rookie error of packing my sleeping bag at the bottom of my Army issue Bergen rucksack and did not want to disturb them further so I improvised by making a makeshift pillow from my fleece and slept under my coat.

Having said that my eyes were further opened at breakfast the following morning when I saw soldiers casually placing their side arms on the table in the mess. I knew I wanted to get out to Mesa Qala to see the aftermath of the recent assault to recapture the town from the Taliban and, when a senior officer heard of my request, he pulled out all the stops and I was on a flight there on Xmas morning.

Once there and after dumping my kit in a hotel, which was formerly run by Taliban drug dealers, and featured children’s graffiti depicting armed conflict, I was on a foot patrol around the town where the troops spoke with local residents. Xmas dinner was from a ration pack and I remember looking up at the many stars that evening. This shot was taken on Boxing Day when we were about to go back into the town and it was good to see that the locals had returned and the market place was bustling.

During the Xmas day patrol we did come across a suspect improvised explosive device (IED) and members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) were sent in to deal with it. To my surprise their method of checking it out involved kicking it!

Having said that I did have to think on my feet as I faced technical difficulties with the laptop, which locked me out early on due to password issues, and as the trip progressed my camera sensor gathered most of the Helmand desert with the resulting spots in the pictures – which had to be cloned out on this photo.

We decided to get married on August 8, 2008, which was the same day as the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. In China the number eight is considered lucky but we just chose it because the anniversary would easy to remember – eight, eight, eight. We even made it into the Scarborough Evening News along with other couples who were tying the knot on the same notable date.

I can remember when I was taking my vows I was actually shaking because it was a big undertaking to commit to someone but we both agreed it was the happiest day of our lives. It was only later that I was to realise the significance of “in sickness and in health” when Karen was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just eight years later.

Scarborough still has a Victorian prison, known locally as the Scarborough Gaol, which was used by Scarborough Council for storage. However, in 2010, it was chosen as the prime location for a film by director Reg Traviss for a new prison movie. I interviewed Traviss ahead of the start of filming and, in a throwaway remark, I asked if I could be in it?

Basically they were appealing to locals to step forward to volunteer as extras and Traviss agreed and invited me to turn up on the first day of shooting. I turned up at these and I was told I would be taking on the role of an officer in the police station scene.

It was interesting to see the filming process and the director just asked me to pretend to be writing using my shorthand. When you watch a scene in a film it seems seamless but it actually needs several shoots from different angles. I was surprised to be asked to give the two actors – James D’Arcy and Jamie Foreman – a stern look when they swore which was well received by the crew. However I decided not to pursue my promising acting career eh?

In 2011 we travelled to China on what we both regarded as a trip of a lifetime. It all started when we were reading a supplement in the Yorkshire Post for a holiday firm and the trip to Beijing appealed to us – maybe it was the photo of a Giant Panda at Beijing Zoo that sealed the deal.

During the trip we experienced life in that city and I have to admit the food was excellent. It was good to visit places such as Tiananmen Square but the place had always wanted to visit was The Great Wall Of China.

There was an organised trip to a more touristy section of the wall but it was good to actually set foot on it. It was also surprisingly steep in parts but it made for some cracking views and it was well worth it.

In 2018 I decided to have a couple of Cold War themed trips, with the same travel firm that organised the China trip, by having a city break in the former east Berlin as well as heading out to Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia.

I had previously visited St Petersburg during a Baltic cruise so I was quite looking forward to the trip. Having said that I was surprised by the number of hoops I had to jump through to get the visa but I got very nervous when the then Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, started antagonising the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, following the Salisbury novichok poisonings.

Having said that it all worked out in the end and I landed in Moscow only to face the sternest looking border guards I have ever encountered. I quite like Moscow and I did get chatting to a guy whose father was posted to the UK in the early 1990s.

In 2019 I was made redundant in my role as reporter at the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald and I did not know what I wanted to do. I was still living in the flat in Carlisle where Karen was diagnosed with her terminal illness and there were the associated memories of that time. So I needed a clean break and applied for a job as a reporter at the Inverness Courier.

I did not realise how far north the Highland capital was until I drove there. For the record it was around five hours but I managed the round trip in a day. The interview went well and by the time I arrived back in Carlisle I had a message to say that, when I received it, I should ring the news editor. It turned out the job was mine and the salary was reasonable.

A few weeks later I had relocated and I fully embraced life in the Highlands. The first thing that struck me was that the further north you got the more support there was for Scottish independence. So, in late 2019, I followed Drew Hendry, the SNP candidate for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, during his General Election campaign, which made for some interesting pictures and he did retain his seat in Parliament.

In January the following year I covered a pro independence march in Inverness where this shot was taken by my colleague James MacKenzie. At the time James was just starting out on his career but it was good to see that he has learned his trade over the subsequent years and is an accomplished press photographer these days.

Then Covid hit. We all knew it was a looming presence over us all and I was even concerned that I would be allowed back over the border after attending my father’s funeral which was during the first week of the first lockdown.

During my time in Inverness I was given the responsibility for reporting any local Covid-related stories as well as any local stories related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And I did like the Highlands as I was just a five minute drive away from Loch Ness.

But, having said that, I was feeling rather remote and needed to relocate further south and last year I started as the local democracy reporter at the News & Star in Carlisle. Basically we first moved north to Carlisle from Scarborough in 2012 so it would appear I have turned full circle. And I will see what the next chapter holds in store for me eh?