Paul Martin

Board Member

 

When did you start at DPC?

I have known about the DPC since first coming to Old Church in spring 2007. I became a Trustee of the DPC in summer 2016.  

What do you enjoy most about your role at DPC?

Apart from the current chaos caused by coronavirus and the terrible uncertainty, I have and will continue to be enthused by the creativity of the DPC users and its management in finding ways to exploit this wonderful resource for the benefit of the community as a whole.

What one thing would you change at DPC?

The height of the leather sofas in the entrance – it is becoming increasingly difficult for an elderly me to climb out of them.

What are your hobbies?

Reading widely, writing when forced, contributing to the work of Old Church and Diocese, and falling asleep

What is your favourite film?

The Magnificent Seven

What is your favourite food?

Anything my wife, Jean, cooks – otherwise some styles of Chinese

What is your favourite holiday destination?

Brecon Beacons

What is your favourite book?

Whichever I’m reading at the time.

What makes you laugh?

Me

Tell us something interesting about yourself?

Staying alive – that’s quite interesting, staying alive when born during a London air raid and delivered in Westminster Hospital when facing backwards. Since then, I have always been looking in the wrong direction but persist in seeing myself as a cockney. Being lucky – that’s quite interesting, being brought up in south London in a family where the purse was empty at the end of the week yet being able to benefit from the opening of university education to people like me who previously wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near such a place. Meeting Jean, my wife – that’s very interesting as we met as students at Durham University and then again, entirely by coincidence, when both working in London. The probability of that happening must be exceedingly low – someone was looking after us.