Follow Ben as he drives his Volvo F88 pulling a trailer overland from the UK to the Middle East. Ben had been a long distance lorry driver in the Uk for over 12 years when he decided to become an owner operator and tender for continental work.
I have not driven a Volvo F88 lorry but I have driven many Volvo B58 coaches which share the same Volvo TD100 9,602cc inline 6 cylinder engine.
This short 31 page memoir from Ben dates back to his driving adventures in 1975 - hence his Volvo F88 tractor unit which was superseded by the Volvo F10. It is a puzzle to the reader why Ben has taken from 1975 to 2014 to write his story. Adding further mystery is that this memoir ends with a surprise AND Ben has not published anything since. What has happened to Ben, did he run into further trouble going to Iran or Iraq?
I enjoyed reading this short memoir although his writing quality was poor. Ben is not very good at spelling and his story lacks proof-reading. But I downloaded my Kindle copy as a freebie and it was a change from professionally published books.
I found Overland to the Middle East to be an OKAY 3 star read which brought back transport memories from the 1970’s. Hands up, I have been a lorry spotter since childhood.
The most amusing piece in this short memoir is Ben’s encounter with some rather young bandits along his route when he writes…
As I came abreast of the first lot I had the window down and a packet of cigs in my hand, I threw out my arm keeping hold of the packet and the fags went out in an ark, the kids went after them like a pack of rats. Before I got passed the kids I had thrown three packs of fags out this way, but we were past and into the village proper.
Overland to the Middle East was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.
No comments:
Post a Comment