Express & Star

He may have just been named Mayor of London, but 20 years ago Boris Johnson was carving out a career in Wolverhampton.

A fresh-faced 23-year-old in 1988, he had just graduated from Oxford University and embarked on his chosen vocation as a journalist.

Securing a job on The Times, his editors sent him to the Black Country to learn his craft in a “working class” environment.

When he arrived at the Express & Star wearing a wide-lapelled chalkstripe suit and silk tie, the Etonion old boy was a far cry from the hardened hacks of the newsroom.

During his three-month stint, Boris lived in Dimmock Street in Parkfields. Last year he travelled back to Wolverhampton and visited the Express & Star’s head office in Queen Street, where he recalled his time spent there.

Now 43, he said he had fond memories of his training, which he said drilled into him the basics of journalism which he took to the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator magazine where he became editor.

He added: “I had a wonderful time here. I was a completely useless reporter. One day someone said to me ‘Boris, do things the right way, the Express & Star way’.” Boris’ days in Wolverhampton are also recalled in his biography, The Rise of Boris Johnson by Andrew Gimson.

It tells of a letter to his wife written from the E&S office, in which he complains about his task for the day. To add to his unhappiness, on a night out he was grabbed by the lapel by “a belligerent social worker called Bruce” who told him not to patronise the Black Country.

After his stint in Wolverhampton it was back to the Times where Johnson developed a penchant for making up quotes.

In one story about a place being discovered by archaelogists in London, he attributed a comment to a respected history don - his godfather. When the don complained, says Gimson, Boris first lied and then tried to brazen it out.

He was then sacked - and the rest is history.