CREATIVE CABBIES DORCHESTER ARTIST BRINGS DRIVER’S TOBY THE TAXI TO LIFE
Young readers can join a funfilled taxi ride around London in a new book illustrated by a Dorchester artist. Paul Dilworth has been working for years as an illustrator and worked in Lon- don for the BBC on productions of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Tales of Beatrix Potter. He has now teamed up with his cousin Peter Marshall, who writes under the pseu- donym Edwin Vaux, to
create the Toby the Taxi series of books for children. The stories follow the adventures of Toby the blue London taxi as he makes new friends. In the first of the series, Toby and his owner, Mr Phillips, travel across London. They visit London Zoo, Buckingham Palace and he even gets a clean at a car wash. Toby also delivers vis- itors to the Queen’s garden party, but is disappointed because
Paul Dilworth with his Toby the Taxi book
he doesn’t get to meet Her Majesty. He does however get to meet a Cockney pearly King and Queen. They even fly above the city visiting Tower Bridge and the Lon- don Eye with the help of a helium balloon seller. Mr Dilworth, 56, said: “My cousin is 68 and he used to work as a taxi driver. He still does a couple of days a week. “He had these little stories over the years
MIDDLESBROUGH DRIVER POET DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM PASSENGERS
He self-published the first print-run of 100 copies
for £400
Taxi driver and poet Duggy Verrill Photo courtesy of the Northern Echo
A taxi driver has turned banter with passengers into pub- lished poems after writing his first poetry book. Duggy Verrill penned Down to Earth - Poems About Life from his hackney cab while waiting to pick up fares across Mid- dlesbrough. The verse, which tackles issues rang- ing from losing a beloved pet and put- ting a parent in a care home to the break- down of British society and the harsh reality of watching your partner age, is told in a chatty style
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with a comedic and bawdy tone. According to the Northern Echo, he first put pen to paper 20 years ago but it wasn’t until he read out some of his work at a Christ- mas party that he realised they could have a wider appeal. “A family member asked if I had any more poems as he thought
they were
good enough to be turned into a book, so I got them all out from under my bed, “ said Mr Verrill, 52, who has been behind the wheel of his black and yellow cab for 17 years.
before Christmas and has only seven left. “I write every poem in my taxi - I say what I see and I have lots of time to think,” said Mr Verrill, who enjoys his job due to the array of characters he drives around in the back of his car every day. “I have picked up actors, brain sur- geons and drug takers over the years and I have learnt not to judge people on what they look like. I love my job and would not do any- thing else.” Mr Verrill, who is writ- ing material for his second book, which he hopes to publish this summer, added: “If my poems can make you laugh, cry, feel nostalgic or con- nect with something inside you, then it was worth it.” To order a copy of Down to Earth - Poems about Life costing £5, visit dug-
gyverrill.com
that he was writing for his children. They are now in their early 20s.” He added: “Peter gave me a few ideas and said have a go at it. “He has lots of other stories as well.” Toby the Taxi
is
endorsed by the Lon- don Taxi Company and available from publishers Troubador or online from shop- ping site Amazon. It will be available from Waterstone’s in Dorchester from this month.
LONDON CABBIE’S LANDMARK BOARD GAME
A taxi driver has invented a board game based on the historic Tower Bridge. Cabbie Jim Walker, who was born in Jamaica Road, Ber- mondsey, and grew up in the shadow of the London landmark, hopes the game will become a global suc- cess. ‘Bridge Up’ has been created to coincide with
the anniversary of
125th the
bridge this year. Competitors move around the board by answering a series of trivia
questions
based on the River Thames. Jim hopes visitors to the London 2012 Olympics will be keen to snap up the game modelled on the iconic bridge. He told the South London Press: “I lived by Tower Bridge for over 33 years and I used to play amongst the barges by Tower Bridge.
I always
thought it was a mag- nificent bridge. “I
regularly drive across it, seeing
Jim Walker invented the game Bridge Up for the 125th anniversary of Tower Bridge
tourists from all over the world day after day visiting this iconic landmark, and I thought it would be great to keep that image at home, so I set about the idea of a board game. “I tested it with my youngest daughter who at the age of eight found it really exciting and she kept asking me to play it.” Jim, 53,
took his
invention to games licensing specialists
GamesplayUK.com, and their team of
designers and testers created a retail-ready prototype for world- wide trade shows in London, New York and Nuremberg in Germany. Jim said:
“Tower
Bridge is in its 125th year in 2012 and will be celebrated along- side the Olympics. “It is one of the most visited tourist attrac- tions in the world and I believe that tourists will want to take a piece of their memory home in the form of a board game.”
PHTM FEBRUARY 2012
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