The Man Who Played Trains

I am relaunching THE MAN WHO PLAYED TRAINS

Why have I done this? Because my latest novel, shortly to be available on Amazon, is GROUND RULES, featuring Jez Spargo, the feisty forensic geologist from The Man Who Played Trains.

Feisty, because that’s what one reveiwer called her – “I loved Jez, the author has created such a strong, intelligent and feisty character in her. Even her father is lost without her! Their bond is strong and it is the backbone of this gripping thriller – I could easily picture them in real life.”

This one comment led me to write GROUND RULES.

— OOO —

Two of the many 5- and 4-star reviews of The Man Who Played Trains:

‘GROUND RULES’ by Richard Whittle will be available on Amazon in Spring 2020

 

the bogwheel

The bogwheel and the TYO…
He climbed on to it and said he couldn’t touch the pedals, which didn’t really surprise me. Then he told me he had managed to find some – he had his feet up on the spark plugs and looked like Dennis Hopper in ‘Easy Rider’ (not that I ever saw the film). Or Snoopy, who also appears to have his feet on the spark plugs.

The bike is 40 years old, a 1969 Triumph ‘Mercury’ (a police T100P for those that are interested). For reasons I won’t bore you with I am sure it once belonged to the City of London police, but somewhere in its history it lost its documents (‘ello ‘ello, lost its documents, you say? A likely story. You and me had better go down to the station…). A few years ago I stripped it down to its last nut and bolt and rebuilt it.

Anyway, it isn’t the police bike I’m currently rebuilding, that’s another one. At the moment that one is a garageful of bits.

So why ‘bogwheel’? I think it is a WWII army term. I first heard it in the police, from an ex-soldier who had been in Burma during the war. For motorbikes used out there I’m sure that ‘bogwheel’ was an appropriate term. Policemen who had been army despatch riders also called our bikes bogwheels.

TYO, not the spark plugs, okay? …please take your feet off the spark plugs…
In the photo he had done that.
Good boy.