Tag: Mayor of Peterborough

Bestselling author, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here finalist, and one-half of the chart-topping 1980s band the Communards, Rev. Richard Coles has backed the public appeal to raise money for the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital – describing the need for one as ‘urgent.’

Speaking at a special literary lunch to promote the latest book in his number one bestselling crime series, The Canon Clement Mysteries, just days after his release from the jungle, Richard praised Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust’s public appeal for the children’s hospital which will be the first of its kind in the East of England.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital (CCH) will be unique in treating mental and physical health together under one roof, alongside world-leading research delivered in the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute (CCRI).

Richard praised the appeal, saying: “It really surprises me to hear that there hasn’t been a children’s hospital here in the East of England until now, because the need is so urgent, and so anything you can do to get some energy and commitment into that would be fantastic.”

“I’m specially delighted to hear that it’s something that provides for both mental health needs and physical health needs, because it’s a scandal the state of provision, or lack of provision, for children and young people with severe mental health problem. I’m delighted that is going to be worked into it from the beginning and I hope that people give generously because you will never get better value for money than a pound spent on this.”

“I think one of my great discoveries as a vicar was that you don’t have to whip people up into a frenzy, because actually there’s loads of goodwill already there. It just takes, I think, a few people with a plan and a bit of energy, and you’ll be amazed what you can do.”

“A huge thank you from me for everyone who has supported the campaign and continues to do so.”

Rev. Coles was guest speaker at the lunch organised by Peterborough Mayor, Cllr Marco Cereste, to raise money for three of his charities over the coming year, including the Salvation Army, Anna’s Hope, and the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital.

Booking Richard for the literary lunch in Peterborough was a coup for the Cambridge Children’s Hospital Fundraising Group who booked him months before he was even asked to be a contestant on I’m A Celebrity.

Speaking to a packed venue of 150 guests, there to listen to him talk about his latest book Murder Under The Mistletoe, Richard said: “I had no idea when I agreed to the lunch that I might also appear in the jungle. It certainly never crossed my mind that I would get so far, but it was never really a question of not attending this lunch. Peterborough is relatively local to where I grew up, it was the diocese under which I served, and so the area is a bit like home to me. And the charities this helps are so important.”

Richard’s stories had guests in stitches one minute and in tears the next as he recounted his extraordinary anecdotes and talked about his career as a vicar, his time in the Communards, the jungle, and his good fortune at finding yet another career as a successful writer and soon to be executive producer after retiring from the church now that his Canon Clement murder mystery series is being brought to TV screens in 2025.

When asked what his worst experience in the jungle was, without hesitation he replied – “the pickled herrings”, with the smell being so bad that the crew would leave the area, leaving him almost alone to deal with the stench.

As for his worst task – “It was the one where I had a glass bowl placed over my head, which was filled with creatures including cockroaches, which had a surprisingly bad smell. Despite wearing goggles, the cockroaches managed to get into my eyes, into my ears and up my nose!”

Speaking about his bestselling crime series, The Canon Clement Mysteries, Richard said: “Do you know how many vicar detectives there are in literature? Over 200! And only two of them are actually written by people who were or are vicars, and I’m one of them.”

Asked how much of his books are based on his real-life experiences as a vicar, Richard, who was a Church of England priest in Northamptonshire until his retirement in 2022, winked before replying: “Any likeness to people or places in my books is purely coincidental.”

“When I moved from being a curate in a busy West London parish, to the village of Finedon, colleagues joked that it would be all village fetes and judging vegetable competitions, but within my first week there was a murder so that showed them.”

“Being a vicar means you meet a huge range of interesting people, people open up to you about all sorts of things, and being a vicar isn’t so different to being a detective at times.”

He also revealed the decision to set his series, which features his latest mystery Murder Under The Mistletoe, in the 80s was a way to make his life easier as a writer.

“To be honest I was being lazy. Setting a story in the 80s means I didn’t need to work out how to incorporate things like social media and the internet, but also I didn’t want my detectives wings to be clipped because the killer was caught on someone’s Ring doorbell or they were let down by their own social media accounts. It made the story much more interesting, and also much easier to write.”

Richard said he hadn’t expected to remain in the jungle for as long as he did, as one of the final three – “how that happened I’ve no idea, I don’t even remember bribing anyone. I thought ‘keep going, keep going and try not to complain.’”

“I’ve only just returned from the jungle, so I’ve yet to experience too much attention as a result. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my career – a successful musician, vicar, broadcaster, I’ve written more than seven books, and now my murder mystery books are being turned into a TV series and so I find, in my retirement, now being an executive producer.”

“I’m fortunate enough to wake each day and wonder where the rainbow arc of life will take me that day. But I know from being a vicar that this isn’t the case for everyone. My parish was a deprived one, and many people had no choice – there were children who would wake up not knowing who the adults were that would be looking after them that day were. I helped to set up a charitable pre-school, through selling some land the church held, so that we could support young children with things like reading and writing.”

Of his varied career, Richard said: “I’d love to say it was a masterplan, but it really was one thing after another, I’m 62 and never had a proper job, so I’m probably a career adviser’s worst example. They haven’t all been successful either. The ones people know about are the ones that succeeded, but I’ve had my fair share of failures.”

*** Photos courtesy of David Lowndes