About John

Born in Bradford in 1971 and raised in the village of Oxenhope in Brontë country, I attended Coventry University between 1990 and 1994, where I graduated with a B.A. Hons (First Class) degree in Modern Languages (German and French as core languages and Russian ab initio).

Proud husband and father with two adult daughters and a teenage son.

I live in Warwickshire and work as Digital Web Development Manager for a large engineering company.

I'm a keen motorcyclist, National Observer (trainer) with the UK's largest road safety organisation, IAM RoadSmart (formerly, the Institute of Advanced Motorists - IAM), based with Coventry and Warwickshire Advanced Motorcyclists, where I voluntarily offer on and off-road tuition to motorcyclists who wish to improve their riding skills and ultimately take their advanced motorcycling test. I also earned the highest civilian riding qualification in the UK, the IAM RoadSmart Masters with Distinction. I consider riding a process of continuous improvement. When not helping other bikers, I particularly enjoy motorcycle touring.

My other big passion is my advocacy of electric vehicles and green technologies. Combining the two passions, I became the first person to ride an electric motorcycle between Land's End and John O'Groats in August, 2017 and repeated the journey my newer electric motorcycle in June, 2022.

I have written, co-written, performed, and recorded music and played the drums since 1981 and was a member of the now defunct Coventry originals band BAiT. I also played drums with Coventry-based rock covers band, Ministry Of Beaver for four years between 2008 and 2012, BAiT spin-off covers band, Kill Clouseau, and have otherwise occasionally sessioned for other local musicians.