for the 800 years up to 1964, when the much-criticised previous shopping centre was built on the site. Chinn has also been prominent in the campaigns to save the last back-to-back houses in Birmingham, now a National Trust museum in Inge Street; and for a memorial to the victims of the Second World War Blitz on the city, sited in Edgbaston Street in the Bull Ring. In October 2007 he became patron of the St John's Church Preservation Group, which is campaigning for the reopening of St John's Church, Dudley. In December 2010 he appeared on Ian Hislop's BBC television show Age of the Do-Gooders, in which he championed George Dawson; a "non-conformist preacher, and a bit of a showman". He has also appeared on the BBC's Question Time. Politics In the 1980s he was briefly a member of the Social Democratic Party, which broke from Labour in protest at its perceived leftward shift, and later went on to merge with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats. He stood in the 1983 general election in Birmingham Sparkbrook as an independent, campaigning for import controls to protect local industry, and more investment in council housing. He came last with 281 votes (0.9%). Personal life Chinn married Kathleen Doyle in 1978: they have a son and three daughters, one of whom, Tara, has sung professionally on stage with her father. Chinn is a supporter of Aston Villa FC and has a season ticket at Villa Park. Chinn is a descendant of Peaky Blinders gangster, Edward Derrick. Bibliography They Worked All Their Lives: Women of the Urban Poor in England, 1880–1939 (1988) Manchester University Press. . Homes For People: Council Housing and Urban Renewal in Birmingham 1840–1999 (1989) Birmingham Books. Expanded and revised edition (1999) Brewin Books. . Keeping the City Alive: Twenty-one years of Urban Renewal in Birmingham (1993) Birmingham City Council. Birmingham: The Great Working City (1994) Birmingham City Council. Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Urban Poor in England, 1834–1914 (1995) Manchester University Press. . Brum Undaunted: Birmingham During the Blitz (1996) Birmingham Library Services. Our Brum (1997) Birmingham Evening Mail. The Cadbury Story: A Short History (1998) Brewin Books. . Our Brum: Volume 2 (1998) Birmingham Evening Mail. . 1,000 Years of Brum (1999) Birmingham Evening Mail. From Little Acorns Grow: History of the West Bromwich Building Society (1999) Brewin Books. . Our Brum: Volume 3 (1999) Birmingham Evening Mail.