Please allow me to introduce myself

Phil Gillam has interviewed major politicians, glamorous showbiz icons and legendary pop stars during a journalistic career spanning more than 30 years.

Feature writing assignments have also seen him fly in an RAF jet fighter and go to sea with the lifesaving crews of the RNLI.

More recently, as a newspaper editor, he has been responsible for overseeing the content, layout and production of several publications, generated to strict deadlines. 

Married to Wonder Woman, with three fantastic sons, Phil is also a popular columnist and has written several books about his beloved home town of Shrewsbury.

Since beginning his newspaper career in 1977, Phil has worked as a news reporter, feature writer, page designer and team manager.

He has worked on newspapers in Devon, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands, as well as, for a while, labouring under the unforgiving desert sun on a kibbutz in southern Israel.

And he has been a guest on various radio programmes where he has been invited to talk about one of his great loves - pop music.

His interviewees have included film star Joan Collins, comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, singer-songwriters Ralph McTell and Gilbert O'Sullivan, the great Ray Davies of The Kinks, Neil Finn of Crowded House, and political heavyweights Michael Hesletine, Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair. 

Phil's passions include The Beatles, the cinema, local history, the company of good friends, long walks in the country, and cosy pubs on winter nights.

Newspaper background:   

Shrewsbury Chronicle (1977-1979)

Sunday Independent (1979-1980)

Hull Daily Mail (1980-1982)

Staffordshire Newsletter (1982-1985)

Stafford Chronicle (1985-1988)

Shropshire Star (1988-2005)

Express & Star (2005-2011)

Telford Journal (2012-2014)

Books:

Shrewsbury: A Celebration
Shrewsbury: Pictures from the Past
Telford: Pictures from the Past
Shropshire: Pictures from the Past
Here Comes The Sun (a novel)
Shrewsbury Station Just After Six (a novel)