A taxi driver from Ashton has collated a collection of weird and wonderful stories from the world of driving for his first ever book.

Simon Whiskey, from Ashton, has been a taxi driver for 17 years and in that time has come across more than his fair share of interesting stories.

Using an enforced break from the road to finally get all of his tales down on paper, he’s chosen to self publish his book on Amazon.

Simon said: “The first story in the book is called ‘Rover’ and that’s what started it all off around 15 years ago. The operator, who is now my wife, gave me this particular job and it turned out to be so bizarre it stuck in my mind.

“Many years later, after I had experienced other bizarre events driving a taxi, someone would always say I should write a book so I thought I’d try it.”

It’s Simon’s first published book, although he has written for many years, and says that lockdown inspired him to finally finish a project that began in 2016.

Clocking in at around 200 pages, it chronicles the most humorous characters he and his colleagues have had in the back of their cabs in recent decades and includes a trip to the vets for a deceased dog.

Simon said: “When I first started writing the book I knew nothing about the industry so I went online to look for publishing houses.

“I sent my first draft off and they said it’s ok but we need more words, it was about 8,000 words then and it’s about 14,000 now so they said go back and do some more and I got some more stories.

“Probably the best way to go is self publishing with Amazon. You get more royalties plus literary agents won’t look at you for a one off book.”

Despite taking years to complete, Simon says he enjoyed the writing process.

“It was therapeutic and the thing that I found is that, because I’ve read it a thousand times, is that it wouldn’t be funny, because it’s like hearing the same joke every day for a year, because you don’t laugh.

“I’ve had good feedback from everyone that’s read it, they said they laugh out loud.”

Simon’s book: ‘Ave yer bin busy?’ is available now on Amazon.

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