Alf Townsend: 5 books

Forty years ago Alf Townsend passed The Knowledge - after 14,000 miles on a moped round central London. Since then he has covered millions of miles in his taxi. This book includes a selection of his extraordinary and hilarious tales of everyday life as a cabbie, in which we meet Mr Whippy and Violent...

Between 1945 and 1963, over two and a half million eighteen year olds were called up for national service. Alf Townsend was one of them, and here he tells his story - the highs and lows of life as a lowly Aircraftman Second Class in the early '50s. Before national service intervened, Alf was 'heading...

Blitz Boy is a fascinating recollection of life in the Blitz and of evacuation to Cornwall. Charismatic author Alf Townsend tells the harrowing and touching tale of what it was like for a young inner-city child to suffer the trials of war at first hand. The mass exodus of kids from Britain's major...

In his new book, well-known London cabbie Alf Townsend tells us the complete story of the black cab, from its origins in the seventeenth century to the brand new taxis which now grace the capital’s streets.The history and development of the black cab is explored here in Alf’s straightforward writing...

The advent of the charabanc to the working classes - especially those slaving in the cotton mills in the North - seemed to evoke a special kind of freedom that not many had ever experienced before. They could save their pennies every week with their local working men's clubs and join all their mates...