Started – 20/3/12
Finished – 21/3/12
Format – Kindle e-book
Synopsis – Originally written for the benefit of the author’s daughters and grandchildren, ‘A Policeman’s Tale’ has been extensively re-written for publication. It is really much more than an account of his time as a detective in London. It encompasses his childhood during the war, his schooldays, his RAF service and, following his police career, his time as a private investigator.
As well as describing the many crimes he investigated the book deals with some of the scrapes he got into and amusing experiences he had. It should prove to be a light-hearted but compelling read.
My Thoughts – I downloaded this book as my dad is in the police force and due to this i have quite an interest in the police. I thought that this would be a nice lighthearted read and i was right. I really enjoy reading memoirs, its one of my new favourite genres and this one was no exception.
This book was originally only written for the authors family, so he was just an ordinary person, which for me made the memoir very interesting reading. Also, he wasnt just an ordinary police constable, he got to almost the top rank within the british police force and this made very interesting reading what with all the different jobs he has done and all of the different police stations he has worked in.
I also liked the family parts of his story. This really did add a human aspect to the book and really made it seem like a proper memoir. The different stories that he told during his police life were very good, and really gave a look in, into what policing was like 30 or so years ago.
Although there was a bit of name dropping, there wasnt too much, unlike many of the memoirs that i have read, i do find the name dropping quite tiresome sometimes, but this was not the case in this book.
I only have a couple of bits that i didnt like. I did think that it was a little bit jumbled up, but this could be put down to the author not being a professional author, and it wasnt too noticeable. Also their were some names of the ‘criminals’ in the book and i didnt know if this was a little bit of personal privacy.
This is a good book, recommended to both fans of the memoir genre and others interested in the subject matter.
Rating – 4/5
The Reading and Life of a Bookworm 
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