A REGULAR on BBC radio, Ian McMillan has been described as the funniest, quirkiest and sharpest broadcaster in the business.

Oct 24 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Yet he has stayed close to his roots and still lives in Barnsley, where he was born in 1956.

With down-to- earth warmth and charm, his latest book tells his life story in poems.

Hilarious memories blend with acute observations from his formation of Barnsley’s first folk-rock band to a stint working in a tennis-ball factory and coming to terms with his parents’ deaths.

Proud of his northern heritage, he tells the story of a place where coal-pits once dominated by the skyline. All gone now.

His poems are testaments to the imaginative delights of words. Poetry can sometimes seem pompous – McMillan’s stuff is easy to grasp, a sheer delight to read.