LISTENING is the key to a happy marriage, according to a vicar who found love after the Guardian launched an appeal to find him a wife.

Reverend Robert Hampson, of Holy Trinity Church in Hermon Hill, South Woodford, walked down the aisle with his wife Florence, 44, in November last year, after a whirlwind romance.

The 52-year-old was thrown into the national spotlight in 2008 when this newspaper helped set him up with a string of dates, which was sparked off by the vicar saying his New Year's resolution was to meet someone special.

Reflecting on his first year of married life, Rev Hampson said: “I've had a very good year, it's been wonderful for us both.

“One thing my wife has taught me is to slow down a bit. I've learned to take more time for leisure because in the past I've worked far too much.

“In the last year I've learned that being married is about listening to one another. My wife is a very good listener, and I'm trying to be.

“I don't just mean verbally but something much deeper than than, getting to know one another.

“She has spiritual needs, and emotional needs, and physicals needs. And it's my duty as a husband to fulfil them.

“I don't like to use the word compromise because it's a word that I hate, it implies not being able to do what you want to do.

“I think if either of us felt we had to compromise then we probably wouldn't have got married.

“Before, when I gave advice to people looking to get married, it was always difficult because I wasn't married myself. Now I have a bit more authority to do that.”

Looking to the future, Reverend Hampson said he wanted to travel and hoped that he and his wife would be blessed with a family.

He added: “I'd really like to visit the Sudan. I know it sounds strange but it's got a culture and history that fascinates me, with it's mainly Islamic north and Christian south.

“We'd love to have children but we're aware of the fact that we're getting on a bit, so if God's will is for us to have children, we will.”