The Accidental Bus Driver is a view from the bus driver’s seat. It is an observation of all the extraordinary events which seem to happen on buses – well they seemed to happen whenever I got behind the wheel and drove one.

I found my experiences on the buses to be a microcosm of life in general. Practically everything, good and bad seems to happen on a bus. I found many things funny, some sad and occasionally some defied belief and were downright dangerous. I feel that I am just the messenger and though sometimes my ineptitude and general uselessness contributed to the humour, mostly it was the wonderful array of characters around me who tell the story.

Back cover blurb

“Cushti,” said the accompanying mechanic, on our return to the office. “He’ll do nicely!” From the first day I drove for them, it became apparent that the company was in financial trouble. This was made worse by what seemed to be a permanent shortage of drivers. I began to suspect that the peculiar rag-bag assortment of drivers who were with the company had been lured off the nearby dual carriageway into the depot and treated to as minimal a job interview as I had been. They were a good bunch though, with the usual Geordie bus depot humour combined with hot-headedness and grumpiness in equal measures, particularly when they were suffering from a hangover, which was not an unusual occurrence.

Reviews:

‘...And now he has recorded his exploits in an hilarious autobiography TABD’

‘There are unpleasant episodes, but these are still leavened with lots of Thomas’s humour, which makes the book a must-buy for anyone with a sense of humour.