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Kevin Vose
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Kevin John Vose, a native of St Helens in England, was born in 1958.
At age four, his father John, later to become a writer of fiction and non-fiction, worked as a salesman for the musical instrument firm Vox, noted for the amplifiers used by The Beatles. He took the family and his Co Donegal-born wife Philomena to Larne in Northern Ireland, where he covered Ireland and Scotland.
In 1969 they moved to Blackpool in England, where Kevin took up athletics, at which he had some success before the anxiety condition which has plagued his life saw him quit.
He left school without qualifications (but gained three O levels at a further education college, but failed several) - taking a job as a hotel porter, before working in a hostel/night shelter for homeless people in Stoke-on-Trent, followed by two years as a nursing assistant in a large hospital for the mentally handicapped.
While on a patient’s holiday on the Thames he rescued a youth from drowning and received a Royal Humane Society award.
Meanwhile he’d taken up running again, breaking 50 minutes for 10 miles and finishing 13th in the Lancashire Cross-country Championships, and went on to represent the county at 20 miles.
An advert in the Catholic newspaper The Universe, for Oxford adult residential institution, Plater College, which encouraged mature students without formal qualifications to study, saw him move to Oxford and undertake a diploma in Social Studies (economics and political theory). Several years later, in a bizarre twist of fate, he was sacked for ‘gross misconduct’ by the paper, being paid £7,000 to settle out of court.
Due to Oxford University allowing Plater students to join its clubs, he ran for their cross-country team, helping them to third place in the British Students Federation Cross-Country Championships, finishing 21st, and was picked to represent BUSF, but due to a technicality in the rules, was dropped - he wasn’t actually at an Oxford college.
He then, despite having failing English literature O level, took a degree course at Liverpool Polytechnic in English and history, emerging with second-class honours, followed by a Masters in Publishing Studies at Stirling University.
A period in the wilderness followed, until he took a job as a sub editor on a running magazine in county Durham. He went onto work in London for The Methodist Recorder newspaper, The Irish Post and Financial Adviser.
While freelance sub-editing at The Slough and Windsor Observer, he edited an article about a school seeking life models, and applied himself, which led to him posing for art classes in and around London.
He then took part in a music video as a barman for the band Everything Everything, which led to him becoming a film extra.
Since 2011 he’s appeared in many movies, TV shows and music videos, including Darkest Hour, Belfast, Rush, Downton Abbey the Movie, Endeavour, The Crown, Sexy Beast and A Spy Among Friends, in which had a walk-on part as a tipsy wartime gentleman. Despite a nervous stammer, he had a speaking part in a video for You Tube act The Beta Squad, a clerk of court in Russian series Londongrad, then played a drunk chatting up a deaf woman, and even worked as Father Christmas.
He has been writing humorous verse since his 20s. |
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