Profile: Phil Graham

About This Author

Phil Graham was born in Bishop Auckland in 1953. The son of a policeman from County Antrim, his family settled in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire when Phil was a toddler. Following the death of his father in 1965 Phil and his mother and younger brother came back to Bishop Auckland where he went to Woodhouse Close Secondary School. Following a somewhat feral teenage existence, Phil sort of grew up and commenced work in accounts for a number of local businesses. A few months on the dole in 1974 brought him to become a postal worker, a post he held in various capacities until taking early voluntary retirement in 2008. In the intervening years he was a musician, a photographer, trade union official politician. Phil is married to Janet and they are proud parents and grandparents to two grown sons.