Being a bestselling author is like being a pop star again, says REVEREND RICHARD COLES
The Reverend Richard Coles is an author, radio presenter and Church of England vicar, writes York Membery.
The 63-year-old shot to fame in 1986 as half of the pop duo The Communards, who topped the charts with Don't Leave Me This Way – the UK's biggest single of that year.
Ordained in 2005, he won BBC Celebrity Mastermind in 2014 and co-presented the BBC Radio 4 show, Saturday Live, for 12 years, stepping down in 2023.
In 2022 he published the first of several crime novels, the bestselling Murder Before Evensong, which has been adapted for television and airs this autumn.
He lives with his partner, actor Richard Cant, in East Sussex.
What did your parents teach you about money?
My father Nigel inherited a prosperous family shoe-making business, which had lasted four generations in Northamptonshire, but it vanished on his watch in the 1970s due to cheap imports – so we went from being reasonably well-off to being a bit harder up.
My dad would have actually been happier as an academic, despite coming from a long line of hard-nosed businessmen, but a bit of that hard-nosedness has rubbed off on me. My mother Liz was thrifty, in the way that war children were. But my parents splurged on good food and good holidays.
My outlook towards money has changed over the years. I was a rampant socialist in my youth but am more of a 'centrist dad' now, as well as being a devout Christian.
Have you struggled to make ends meet?
Yes, when I first came to London in 1980, aged 18, I spent four or five years on the dole or scratching a living as a busker. So I know what it's like to be completely skint and to even have to go without food at times.
That said, I could always 'phone a friend', as it were, so I was never destitute. I've always had a fear of falling into debt, but I've not ended up in the workhouse yet.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
I went from being on the dole to being a pop star – it was like a lottery win – but overnight success didn't really serve me well.
It was all so sudden and unexpected, and I was in my 20s, that I p****d most of it up against the wall – and a lot of it went up my nose or other people's noses.
What was the best year of your financial life?
The year 1988 was pretty good because by then the royalties were rolling in from The Communards. We sold well around the world [their Never Can Say Goodbye single sold two million copies], though touring was loss-making in those days.
I'm probably better off now than ever before. Being a bestselling author is the nearest thing to being a pop star again, and has been very financially rewarding. But this time I'm investing in Isas rather than putting it up my nose.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A Bosendorfer piano. They are one of the big five piano-makers, and they are very good for those specialising in a German / Austrian classical music repertoire, though a lot of jazz pianists use them too.
It's equivalent in value to the car you buy when you have a mid-life crisis. I play it every day.
What is your biggest money mistake?
I'm the only person who didn't make money on the London property market in the 1980s.
I bought an end of terrace Georgian house in Islington for £160,000 at the peak of the property market and sold it at the absolute trough in the early 1990s, just about breaking even. If I'd hung on to it, I'd be sitting very pretty.
Best money decision you have made?
Taking out a pension when I was in The Communards, though it was really my manager's decision, Lorna Gradden, rather than mine.
Some bands might get ripped off by their manager but I was greatly enriched by mine, who set up an extremely favourable pension scheme for me when I was 23, securing guaranteed annuities too, which has made life much easier for me since reaching 60 three years ago.
Whenever I meet young people who are starting out in showbusiness I always tell them to start paying into a pension at the earliest opportunity.
When you're 25, the idea of being 60 is unimaginable, but it comes, and when it does come you'll be grateful for that pension.
I'm not sure I'll ever fully retire, but I'd like to take things a bit quieter when I reach 65.
Will you pass down your money or spend it all?
I'd like to make sure my partner Richard is financially secure if I pre-decease him, and I'll pass on money to my five nephews and nieces. Of course, they've now got an incentive to murder!
I'll also leave money to the charity Parkinson's UK – my father died from the disease – several church charities, and a charity supporting the sub-postmasters until they get the compensation they are owed.
Do you own any property?
Yes, an 18th century cottage with a couple of bedrooms in a small village in East Sussex, where I have a lot of friends, close to the sea.
I'll stay here for as long as I can manage the stairs. The only downside when you buy an old property made of local materials is that you find that you've become a historic buildings curator and you need to get specialist people to fix things.
If you were Chancellor what would you do?
Invest in infrastructure and get the roads and railways working, to try to arrest that daily crumbling decline that you see wherever you go, because it just stifles growth and prosperity.
I know everyone slags off the Chancellor, but I'm glad to see the Government is going to moderate changes to winter fuel payments.
What is your number one financial priority?
To ensure I've got enough to pay for my care needs, and those of my dependents.
A Death On Location, by Rev Richard Coles, is published in hardback on Thursday, priced £22. He is currently touring theatres around the UK with his one-man show (richardcoles.com/live).
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