It is good to recharge your “spirit battery” now and again, and well-known destinations for this include The Vatican, Mecca and Jerusalem. Recently I returned from a pilgrimage to my first spiritual home, Liverpool.

I have always had a deep affection for the area; my first job after university was as a construction engineer, based in Widnes. It was always a thrill to sit on the town’s station platform (where Paul Simon wrote the song Homeward Bound) and to take the short trip to the hallowed stomping grounds of my great musical heroes, The Beatles.