A Coach Load of Chaos

About the Book

William explained that the nave had round-headed arches and had been built by the Normans. "Gee! We have them in the States, you know, at Salt Lake City," Mr Murray remarked to his wife. "Honey, I think those are 'Mormons'. He said 'Normans'." William Simpson has everything he wants in life except a girlfriend. He loves his job, guiding coach tours of France, but he has never forgotten his schooldays and the bullies, prefects and teachers who made his adolescence a misery. One day his boss offers him ten complimentary places on his next tour. Rather than take his friends, William looks up his old enemies, and invites them on a free holiday none of them will ever forget. Remembering their personalities, interests and foibles, William is determined to get his revenge in a very special way! At the same time our hero has to look after a motley group of real holidaymakers, maintain the Entente Cordiale in his dealings with French hoteliers, save his coach driverís marriage and find out if he really is falling in love with his bossís bus-mad secretary - or she with him? As Tour F443/07 wends its way through rural France, William wonders whether any of his victims will recognise him, and whether they will make it back home! While his passengers fill up on vin ordinaire, he discovers new uses for a Norwegian Tourist Board video and an old halfpenny. A hilarious story about romance, money, revenge, cheap wine, bad coffee and an AEC Regent V with Park Royal bodywork.

About the Author

Rob Sissons was born in Kent and has lived in the county for most of his life. He came to creative writing at an extremely young age; his first book, Lambkin and the Men with Guns, was written on the day of President Kennedy's assassination: Rob's mother supplied him with crayons and sheets of rice-paper to keep him occupied during a family dinner-party while the grown-ups were watching the news from Dallas on television! He often wonders whether he is the youngest person who can recall that particular day. After studying French and English literature at University, Rob spent two years teaching English abroad and several years working as a tour manager taking tourists around Europe. He has subsequently worked as a copywriter for one of the UK's leading tour operators, and has had articles and poetry published in a number of magazines. He originally planned to write a book about his experiences 'on the road', but decided that some of them were so incredible that no-one would believe them. Some real-life incidents, however, later found their way into A Coach Load of Chaos. Rob lives on the Kent coast, within sight of the English Channel, less than a mile from the former home of H G Wells, one of his heroes. He is a qualified Blue Badge guide for London and South-East England, and his hobbies include travel, vintage transport, collecting things and swimming - occasionally with dolphins! A Coach Load of Chaos is his first novel.