Chris Mullin talks to Paul Blezard

Author, journalist and politician Chris Mullin reflects on a life that has seen him successfully campaign to free innocent people convicted of the Birmingham bombings, write three novels including the classic A Very British Coup, and serve as a minister in three departments during the Blair years.

Mullin’s widely acclaimed three volumes of diaries are regarded as one of the best accounts of the rise and fall of New Labour under Blair and Brown. He has now written his memoir, Hinterland. Mullin trained as a journalist on the Daily Mirror and went on to work on the Granada World in Action current affairs programme, where his investigative work was key in exposing the miscarriage of justice around the Birmingham Six, and as editor of the left-wing magazine Tribune. His first novel, A Very British Coup, published in 1982 and portraying the destabilising of a left wing government by the establishment, was turned into a Bafta and Emmy-winning television drama.

Mullin was MP for Sunderland South between 1987 and 2010 and held a number of high-profile roles including as a minister in departments for the environment, transport and the regions, for international development and in the Foreign Office. He was also chairman of the home affairs select committee. He is currently chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund North East and was a judge of the 2011 Booker Prize.

Here he talks to writer and journalist Paul Blezard.