Showered in Shale: September 2006

Into the svelte Mastodon's Lair at Ashfield

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

Marmite and a Learned Review from 'Professor' Barclay

Last page of the Peterborough programme for the important televised meeting with Swindon featured the most scholarly review of my book so far by Derek 'Professor' Barclay. He has kindly sent me the text of his review though this means disappointing that you can't see the picture of him that adorns the column - apparently posing with his laptop, though it's obscured by some improbably placed programmes, with a starled look that is still part Geography teacher and part Probation Officer. Also he has kindly corrected a couple of errors that appeared in the published version, notably his use of the (new) word "Homerian" - I imagine that he must be a charcter in The Simpsons - and the hard to substantiate claim that Marmite is an "infamous beef extract spread".

The review reads:

Right, back from my hols and time to review the book I’ve lately been lugging (and it’s some lug!) across the beaches of Turkey. Memo to self: pick a lighter book next year and annoy the wife less!
But I have to say ‘Showered In Shale’ by Jeff Scott is worth the read even with a touch extra effort: as this is clearly NOT the typical Speedway book and is something close to my heart, a genuine attempt to look at our sport in the wider context of modern Britain.

Some have compared it to Nick Hornby’s ground-breaking (and much mimicked) football classic, ‘Fever Pitch’. I have to say, that only someone who’s never read ‘Fever Pitch’ (one of the finest books ever written, in my Gooner-biased opinion!) would make this comparison. Hornby’s book is a personal voyage from child to adult and very much in the first person. Scott’s Homeric quest is to visit every track in the UK in one season and observe (and he certainly is a comprehensive recorder of the minutiae of these observations); but the ‘heroes’ of the book and the medium through which the stories are told are third parties: the great, good and mostly spectacularly ordinary folk of British Speedway.

So what IS Scott aiming to do with his book? His thesis is that, “Speedway is the complete opposite of the contrived experiences of today..: the mendacity that is the bane of modern life the false representations of reality”. Phew! To Scott, “the sport represents one of the last true bastions of white working-class culture in the country. Speedway says a lot about people, relationships and community”. And perhaps most illuminatingly: “Speedway is an activity that still manages to connect people to a place; their passions to their lives; their dreams to their communities, but without the relentless consumerism and anonymity of so many aspects of contemporary life in our modern society”.

Yes – Scott isn’t going for an easy meander around Britain’s 30 or so tracks. And to me, the book is at its strongest when the author ties in his specific observations of a Speedway club with their locale: the sense of place and how the Speedway community there retains a valuable identity which runs contrary to what he observes as the increasingly predictable sameness of the changing British social landscape: as he puts it, “these pseudo-aspirational zones that frame so much of the modern consumer experience”.

And Speedway exists (or he seems to argue, subsists..) in a working class environment which as Pete Toogood is quoted as saying, “lacks chimney pots”. The struggle of the most taciturn of all his interviewees, the promoters to keep the sport alive in such conditions is a major theme.

As well as a sense of place, Speedway is an appeal to the senses. And Scott at times magnificently captures this. There’s sight (“a race simultaneously appears timeless, caught in the moment and somehow more significant in the overall scheme of things”); sound and smell (“they say your smell and hearing are the last senses to go when you die; in which case God must be a Speedway fan as these are the key senses you engage at every meeting. There’s the throaty roar of the bikes. and the distinctive bouquet and aroma of the methanol”) and even taste: our sport is compared by someone as like “Marmite – loved by some but inspiring loathing and antipathy in many others”.

Hmm. Like the infamous, what is it, vegetable/beef (??!) extract spread, you may like Jeff Scott’s book or maybe not: you certainly shouldn’t ignore it!

'Professor' Barclay has just returned from a trip to the wilds of the border of England and Scotland and has now encountered one of the country's unique speedway circuits (and meeting presenters):

"And I was knocked out by Shielfield Park..!! I'm surprised you don't make more of it in your book - coz I thought it was probably the most amazing venue I've ever been to..!

The shock of turning into what appears to be a very normal entrance to a normal park on a normal Council housing estate and finding that there's a football ground with a fully fledged deep, dark shaled Speedway circuit
'round it was literally breathtaking..!!
And more than anywhere I've been in recent years, you do get the full experience of being back in the '70s (or even earlier) inside Shielfield Park. Quite amazing..: a bullshit free zone..: oh, but then there's Dick Barrie..!!

I loved his pre-match ramblings..: they sounded almost pre-recorded or scripted and it reminded me so much of - you may not know this allusion - those Crusin' LPs released in the '70s of original USA radio shows from the mid-'50s thru' to the early '60s. The charm of these were the jingles and the ads with the likes of 'Jumping' George Oxford of KSAN, San Fran. and Dick Biondi of WKBW, Buffalo giving out spoken word ads for the local furniture stores and meat emporiums. Dick advertising the main Berwick club sponsor, Andersons Butchers of North Berwick is exactly like those old US radio ads. Priceless; and adds to the
almost surreal feel about Berwick Speedway. Incidentally it's also extremely Scottish - right down to the toy-town style bank notes I kept being given in my change. How they can say it's in England is beyond me..!

But Mr. Barrie does begin to grate as he goes on & on & on & on...!! And the constant reminiscences back to some halcyon days gone by..?!! Much as the 'Berwick Speedway Experience' is somewhat embellished by the feeling
you've stepped back in time, for the sake of continuing commercial viability I'd say they need to ease up on this a tad..!

But, all in all, my feeling was this.. EVERY town in the UK should have a place in their municipal parks like this: a football stadium with a Speedway circuit around it, where locals can gather if they want on early Saturday
evenings for good, old fashioned harmless excitement - coming out of their nearby (very nearby in some cases..!) houses without planning officials and/or Environmental Officers telling 'em they can't..!
THAT'S what my vision would be : please insert in a hundred plus Local Development Frameworks (sic)!!"

These lovely Scottish notes can buy my book for £20 at trackshops or £24 by post as the postal charges have recently gone down.

Trevor visits Armadale

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

Problems with Tyres not Tired

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

King’s Lynn Rider’s Cap Off Night of Celebration by Sleeping Together!

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

How to Run a CL Pairs Championship - The Scunny Way

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

Great Races in the Fens

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.

Kind Letter of Praise in the Speedway Star from a Reader

Good Read

May I recommend the book Showered in Shale by Jeff Scott to all your readers.

It is a simply fascinating and unique observation of the current speedway scene in Great Britain.

Descriptions of the various locales and communities in which the tracks reside add valuable social background. The praise and acknowledgment of the often unseen efforts of the people involved at the tracks is the most endearing for me. These good people rarely get the praise they deserve.

The riders who risk life and limb providing us with entertainment and the promoters viewpoints are, as always, very interesting.

I feel it is a most noteworthy and colourfully described account of the social infrastructure of speedway in Great Britain in the current age.

I cannot find anything I don’t like about this book, it is simply a pleasure to read.

Mark Poulton
Cwmbran, Gwent

Forecast Of Torrential Rain

SORRY! This page has been removed…

A fully revised and updated version of this blog entry now appears in my new paperback book Shifting Shale (Methanol Press £20) published in June 2007.

All my blog entries from 2006 are included in this book along with many other accounts from my travels that I withheld from the blog. These include the SRA Dinner, Brighton Bonanza, Riding with the Ref’s at Sittingbourne, the Corduroy Revolution at Reading and many, many more!

A fuller description of this book is below

Shifting Shale: 2006 A Race Odyssey

Like the modern-day gladiators of motorcycle speedway, author, observer and minutia obsessive Jeff Scott goes round in circles, Shifting Shale - just like his fearless heroes.

Only the shale he is shifting is not the pinky gloopy stuff which adorns the tracks in the rundown stadiums of broken dreams but his masterwork – a 320,000 word analysis of what once was “Britain's second largest watched sport” (after football).

Entitled Showered in Shale, this epic tome published early in 2006 received plaudits like no other speedway book and, taking his author role seriously and ignoring the edict of one who said “I'd like to write and be published, but I couldn't bear the endless rounds of book signing”, he sets off around the tracks once more to 'press the flesh', meet his public and most importantly, sell some books.

So, not only is this another unique speedway observational book - but a book that will appeal to anyone who has promoted their own work. Scott sets up his stall in the shadows of these mostly decaying yet hugely attractive full-of-triumph-and-tragedy corrugated arenas to sell his wares. His only weapons are charm, humour and unsold volumes.

And it is mostly from this table-side vista a freshly askew insight into the joys of watching four riders race four laps on an uncertain surface on a methanol guzzling 500cc two wheeled monster with no brakes. It’s a spectacle that defies logic insomuch as firstly, four riders try to squeeze into the first bend when there is only space for one and secondly, to turn each corner, the rider actually accelerates and steers to the right. Although he's turning left …

Which, in effect, is the power of this new book - built as a blog, but now read as a book. Reading Jeff Scott, there are no brakes. To stop, you have to throttle off and put your foot down. But the buzz is so captivating, it is a very hard thing to do.

And when he leaves his tableware to the elements and wanders into the pits, the bar, car park, centre green or up to the referee's box, once more, you are actually there.

Elsewhere, he enjoys being a guest of Sky Sports at the prestigious Speedway Riders Association end of year bash, a day astride an actual speedway bike at Sittingbourne Speedway, comparing sales figures with legendary former riders, hobnobbing with riders on the Isle of Wight ferry and even spending the night sleeping with two speedway riders at the Norfolk Arena ...

It's dafter, funnier, deeper and a 'must have' companion to his masterpiece Showered in Shale, and his other books – the hilarious When Eagles Dared or the poignantly photographed Shale Britannia.