TERRY Waite was born in Cheshire, but has since travelled far and wide in the service of the Church and various charities.

He spent almost five years as a hostage in war-torn Lebanon, but his travels this month are bringing him to Malvern.

He is due to give a lecture on Monday, May 27 relating the trials and rewards of his fascinating career at the town's Forum Theatre.

"What I shall be doing is in two parts," said Mr Waite, who was awarded a CBE in 1992. "The first part is a lighthearted and humorous side, talking about some of my travels around the world with Archbishop Robert Runcie and the amusing things that happened to us.

"Then I move on to more serious things, such as terrorism and the root causes of that, drawing on my own experience of these things.

"I don't think they will be dealt with by force of arms, but we need to look at why people behave the way they do. We have to look at that.

"Hopefully, there will be some discussion and questions too."

He added: "I have done several of these around the country and they have been very popular evenings. I write and lecture in order to make money to give my time to the various charities I help out."

His life story is one better suited to the pages of a thriller or a Hollywood movie.

Born the son of a policeman in 1939, he left college and was appointed as education advisor to the Anglican Bishop of Bristol and stayed there until moving to East Africa in 1969.

While there he worked as a training advisor to the first African Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

He and his wife, Frances, and their four children were in Uganda to see the brutalities of Idi Amin's coup.

"It wasn't pleasant," said Mr Waite. "It was scary - we lost two cars at gunpoint. It was a pretty miserable situation, but when we ask our children about it they remember the good days.

"It was a good experience because it taught me something of the way people can be in the world and some of the political and cultural complexities."

Eventually, he was recruited in 1980 by the Archbishop of Canterbury and travelled extensively as the Archbishop's special adviser.

He travelled all over the world in that capacity, helping to negotiate the release of several hostages from Iran and later Libya in the early 1980s.

His successes led him to try to arrange hostage releases in Lebanon in 1987, but was taken captive himself and stayed in captivity for 1,763 days, spending the first four years in solitary confinement.

Such a situation is almost beyond comprehension, but Mr Waite said: "You never know how you are going to cope with things until you face them. I was convinced that I was right to do what I did and just determined not to be beaten.

"Although I was kept in total solitary, chained to a wall for years, you have to learn in that situation to live from within."

Since his release in 1991 he has written three books - the first, Taken On Trust, became an international best-seller. His second, Footfalls in Memory, was another chart-topper after it was published in 1995, while the third, Travels with a Primate, published in 2000, is a humorous account of his journeys with Archbishop Runcie.

Nowadays, he devotes his time to lecturing and writing and working for numerous charities.

His Malvern lecture on Monday, May 27 begins at 7.30pm and tickets, priced £10, are available from the box office on 01684 892277.