He then won a scholarship to Westminster school in London at the age of 14, but a year later was found to be in possession of drugs and expelled. Shane was an avid reader he attended the fee-paying Holmewood House prep school, near Tunbridge Wells, where his creative writing skills were first identified.

His mother, Therese (nee Cahill), was a prize-winning Irish dancer and singer and former model, and his father, Maurice MacGowan, an executive at the C&A retail chain, loved literature and poetry. He grew up in Tunbridge Wells, often visiting family back in County Tipperary. MacGowan was born on Christmas Day in Pembury, Kent, while his parents were visiting relatives. Fairytale of New York has subsequently re-entered the charts many times, and is frequently voted one of Britain’s favourite Christmas songs. The song, first released in 1987, when it reached No 2 in the charts, became a highlight of the band’s Christmas gigs, with rereleased recordings becoming more poignant after MacColl’s death in a speedboat accident in 2000. The key to the Pogues’ success was the songwriting of MacGowan, in such masterpieces as Streams of Whiskey and A Rainy Night in Soho, but above all in Fairytale of New York, on which he duetted with Kirsty MacColl.

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