Martin Bell in Welshpool

More than 200 WI ladies from Powys have been given an insight into the life of former war correspondent and MP Martin Bell.

Mr Bell OBE was in Welshpool yesterday after he was invited by the Powys Montgomeryshire Federation of Women's Institutes to give a speech at its annual council meeting.

The 72-year-old former BBC correspondent gave an in-depth speech about his work as an ambassador for UNICEF and what is was like to be a war correspondent.

"I joined the BBC in the mid-1960s and back then it wasn't a necessity to be good looking to get a job," he said.

He told members of the WI about the 12 years he had spent working in Washington and how he witnessed a "good working relationship" form in the 1980s between former American president Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Councillor Garry Banks, chairman of Powys County Council, said he was delighted that Mr Bell had visited Welshpool.

"It was a great honour for me to attend the annual council meeting of the WI and it's great that they invited such an interesting and well-known person like Martin Bell to attend as guest speaker," he said.