BIG INTERVIEW: Terry Waite speaks to the County Gazette ahead of appearing at the Taunton Literary Festival

For those who do not know in 1980, Terry Waite was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, as his Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs.

Terry travelled the world negotiating hostages release but on 20 January 1987, while talking with the Islamic Jihad Organization he was taken hostage.

He was held from 1987 to 1991 - a total of 1,763. Much of it was in solitary confinement where he was beaten and blind folded and given nothing to read or to listen to -isolated from the world.

The reason for looking up ‘Live for the day’ is this was the way in which Terry Waite described how he survived each day he was held captive. He lived each day as it could be his last as he never knew if he would be killed or allowed to live.

Speaking about this he said: “I lived for the day as I recognised I never knew if I was going to seen the end of any day.

"I suffered deprivation, both physical and mentally but I never closed my mind and used my imagination. I had no music to listen to, no books.

“Many people in life suffer as a result of misfortune if they confined to a wheelchair or to the house.

"It doesn’t mean to say you cannot give up on life. I believe out of suffering something creative can come.”

For many people if they ever met their captors they would be very angry and possibly seek revenge.

Terry said he had met his captors since he was released and did say he felt angry about them.

Talking about the meeting, Terry said: “I said we have both been through different things. At the time I asked them what they could do to help as there were refugees on the Syrian border.

"I told them they were cold and hungry and they gave me some heating oil. It was a single gesture but I could not hold a grudge as I want to use it for a creative process and do want I can to help others.”

He said in the years since he was released he has had a very fulfilled life perhaps more so after his stint in captivity as this experience changed him and altered the course of his future.

Asked if he was tired of talking about his time as being a hostage, Terry said: “It is part of my past.

"If something has happened in the past we should learn from it and not repeat it.

“We have made these mistakes and we should learn. I speak about the past and it is not something I can change.

"I have sympathy for people who have suffered from being taken hostage and I can empathise with them and those who are being held in prison. I am going to utilise my experience.

"I give talks to prisoners and one of the letters I have had today said ‘You’ll never know how much what you said meant to me and the other people in the prison.

“People can be given hope but they are the only ones they can change. I learnt a tremendous amount about myself when I was alone.

“When you are isolated you can become introspective when you are forced to take a look at yourself. You can describe both the light and dark, good and evil.

“The danger is if you are alone then you can over concentrate on the dark and it take you over.

"The real art is to recognise you are a human being and human being and you need to find your harmony within.

"When I came out of captivity I said I would not take another salaried job I was going to earn my money from writing and giving lectures.

“I wanted to be true to my character and work for charities I supported but not take a penny for my work.”

One of the organisations which Terry works for and is co-founder is Hostage UK.

As it states on its website: “Hostage UK is an independent charity that supports hostages and their families, during and after a kidnap.

“We were founded by a group of former hostages and their family members who wanted to ensure anyone going through a kidnap had access to the specialist care and support they need free of charge.

"Delivered independently of any outside interests, our team includes psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers who give their time free of charge. “

Terry explained a lot of the work they do is under the radar as the families want to keep what had happened private. Hostage UK helps people learn to live again as they take one step at a time.

He added: “I have had to learn to live again. I understand myself a lot more and not in a narcissistic way I love myself more and I have been able to show that love to others.

"Love is a creative force, a creative power. Time we are given, hope means you have to be optimistic and have a good attitude to life.

"That means you are prepared to take a risk and that is a good thing. To have hope you need faith to back it up. To have faith you have to love life.

"All three are connected. I suppose I relied on hope. This was one thing I was not going to lose.

“I would say in the face of my captors, you can break my body and break my spirit but you will never have my soul.

"I was confined physically but my soul was in hands of God and not man.

"I do not think I am a religious person. It depends on what you mean by religious.

"If by religious you mean following a doctrine along a specific route then I am not in this camp.

“In my view religion means to love God and your neighbour as yourself.

“God cannot be fully comprehended, it is a great mystery and no one religion can give a true understanding.

"Religion is like a handrail guiding us to the unknown.

"The problem with religion is they are arguing about the shape of the handrail.”

Terry Waite will be at St James’ Church, Taunton.for the Taunton Literary Festival on November 10 at 6.30pm to talk around his book Out of Silence

To get tickets and for further details go online at tauntonliteraryfestival.net