This charming man; the real Nigel Farage

I haven't been this excited since Stoke were in the cup final," says the middle-aged woman next to me as she pushes past to talk to Nigel Farage.

He's standing in a Wetherspoons pub in the middle of Stone town centre, surrounded by a crowd, a pint of real ale in hand and deep in conversation.

As she pushes through the small circle of suits to speak to him he greets her like a long lost friend.

• UKIP leader Nigel Farage hits out at HS2

"Good to see you, how are you?" he booms, as she thrusts a camera out for someone – anyone – to capture the moment.

"Make sure you take two pictures. I want to send one to my daughter in America," she orders.

He chats to her about her daughter for a while and listens intently.

Then a man in a suit approaches to introduce himself.

"Good to see you, how are you?" says Mr Farage, with a big smile, a handshake and eye contact – always direct eye contact. One thing is for sure – the Ukip leader is a man in demand and he's quite at ease with it.

So much so that when it comes to my turn to meet him – big smile, big handshake, "Good to see you!"?– we have to move to a quiet corner of the pub to prevent interruptions.

He is, after all, the man who has recently been voted the most popular party leader in a poll. Enigmatic, eloquent, jovial, captivating, these are all words which have been used to describe him. Heck, even his final school report said the college "would be a poorer place without this boy's personality".

Today, he looks a little jaded having spent the past few days travelling the country on what he dubs with a wry smile, "this Billy Graham tour I'm on".

The day before was his 49th birthday and he was in Worcester.

I ask him about these descriptions of him as one of the most enigmatic political leaders around.

"Well, there isn't much competition, is there?" he says.

"Nobody says anything interesting or does anything anymore. They're all like cardboard cut-outs.

"But at the end of the day, I'm disinterested in what people think of me and whether people like me. I always have been, ever since I was a young boy."

Instead, he says, he is driven by the feeling that "if we weren't doing it, nobody else would be". "I've made a massive sacrifice to do this," he says.

"I've given up a very highly paid job and given up a huge amount of my time. But if we weren't here fighting for these things, I can't see who would be.

"Plus I enjoy it. Yes it can be very tiring. But I'm gregarious. I like meeting people, it's huge fun."

He flashes a grin. "I'm a bit of an extrovert really I suppose."

Despite the fatigue, he is still charm personifed. Relaxed, chatty and warm, he comes across as a down-to-earth bloke. In the crowd, he is comfortable and polite without being over the top or even smarmy, but always seems acutely aware he is being watched.

Farage has been through his fair share in his 49 years. He was active in the Conservative party from his teens, but left in 1992 over the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.

He joined Ukip in 1993 and was elected to the European Parliament in 1999, 2004 and 2009 and took over leadership of Ukip in 2006.

In his early 20s, he suffered a fractured skull after being hit by a car. He also battled testicular cancer.

On May 6 2010, as the polls opened for the general election, the light aircraft he was in towing a campaign banner famously nosedived to the ground.

He escaped battered and bruised.

"I didn't think I was coming out of that plane alive," says the married father-of-four, his tone changing slightly. "I'm the luckiest bloke alive.

"I'm a lucky just to be here – two crashes and cancer. I'm completely fatalistic about it all now. That's why I go on drinking and smoking. One of the great things I've learned in life to do is ignore doctors' advice completely."

His tone is laid back and chatty but when it comes to the politics, his voice steels and he jabs a finger on the table to emphasise his point.

It was the Eastleigh by-election on March 1 which was, he says, "mega" for the party and got the Tories running scared after beating them to second place behind the Lib Dems.

Does he regret not standing himself? Could his power of personality have actually won Ukip its coveted first seat in Westminster?

"No," he says. "I do not regret it at all. If I had and I'd have won then I wouldn't be here doing this. I'd be in Eastleigh or Westminster. I would have been hemmed in to doing that.

"What people see now is us offering positive policy solution. We've evolved as a party and have a completely different, forward-looking message.

"The biggest problem for us has always been the idea a vote for Ukip was a wasted vote. Eastleigh showed that's no longer the case."

Staffordshire, he believes, could be a strong area for the party in the forthcoming county council elections.

"I've got a good feeling about it all. No rash projections but we're going to run it to the line."

At this point, one of his team arrives.

"Nigel, are you going to be coming outside soon, the crowd's getting a bit restless," he says. He looks at his watch and pulls a smart black coat.

"Lovely to meet you," he says charmingly as he disappears to schmooze the waiting crowd.

Handshake, big smile, direct eye contact.