Keith Sanders the Storyman Podcast

This story came to me while reading some modern periodicals about older motor cars......one of my passions! From time to time we read of “writers” or contributors who have been writing on their favourite “themes” or subjects “for over 30 years”. Sounds a long time....and then I thought again.......but you must have been writing for longer than that!  In fact thinking back even harder, I first star...

It was about 19.30, one minute I was happily working on pergola repairs under our wisteria walk then suddenly I was suspended by my left arm...feet only a couple of feet from the floor but as I looked at said arm, it gave an unpleasant scrunching noise and changed direction! Looking up I thought...this never happened to Tarzan! Dropped to the ground quickly, arm not responding to any signals! Foun...

This is a longer story,  the sage ending six months battling with Barclay Bank to try and hang on to the Northcote Horse Centre Property in Lincolnshire. We had mortgaged it way back in 1991 when interest rates went to 20% and normal overdrafts were too expensive. Now we had to pay the loan back, but due to all the problems with low income and all the expenses of keeping and caring for those big h...

 Taken from the time of It's a Rum Life Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984. We did manage to take an annual holiday and normally travelled to France.  This is the tale of one particular visit to a popular attraction in the Southern Dordogne. Startling and disturbing with a happy outcome...for us! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film a...

A story from It's a Rum Life  Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984. A Jaguar saloon car was something I had always set my heart on....but thought it impossible. But then, there it was ................. The story of our Blue Jaguar and how it met its match! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on...

A story from yet to be published It's a Rum Life at Northcote   Volume One 1984 to 1998 Times had been very difficult and we had little or no money in the Bank. "A message" told me not to do it................. I should have listened! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our...

Another story from It's a Rum Life at Northcote  this time Volume Two 1998 to 2008 This was a wonderful chance to earn extra cash. Not to mention earning good publicity and putting the Horse Sanctuary in the limelight!  The logistics were immense and East Lindsey District Council once again did their darndest to stop us!! Alford Town Council were real bricks and fought for us all the way. It...

My ex-employers agreed to run a series of "Diary" type stories accompanied by cartoon pictures in our series of local weekly newspapers. This was the Morton Group of newspapers based in Horncastle, Lincolnshire UK. The following cutting is reproduced by kind permission of the existing proprietors....Johnson Group Publishers. In this story, you will read about Goliath as well as the main...

The year then was 1967, pre-war MG cars were not that common but had yet to begin their astronomical rise in value.  It was all there minus a hood and the engine ran fine, but the car had no test and was to be sold as seen. It cost just £45. Incredible to think isn’t it! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos...

 Now the situation was totally different; we were fighting the wind which was now right in our face as we began to tack, that is proceed from side to side in zig zags to allow the wind to still propel us in the general if a trifle vague direction we wished to go. The tide was also against us and that rolling swell that had carried us down the coast in grand style was now also in our face; literall...

I supposed he was just intrigued with the look of it all. Certainly an unusual ensemble, I should imagine its nearest contemporary was a traveling circus! Eventually, he decided that his best avenue of attack was me rather than the vehicle ensemble of which he was obviously unsure. He was not even pleasant or humorous or even human, just one of those policemen who give the nice ones a bad name, on...

Over the years I have managed to become quite eloquent and this time was no exception, we received a very fair judgement to pay what was owed over the next three years. This  was obviously much to his annoyance. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker boo...

Unfortunately, John’s disposition was not conducive to humouring recalcitrant dock workers and it was not long before he had an almighty bust-up with the docks and their outmoded attitude to a decent days work. The resulting explosion could be heard for miles and we were blacked from entering the docks. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with adde...

Bank Holiday Saturday morning was going to be busy in the very centre of Newcastle and not wishing for a prolonged confrontation with irate bus drivers I tried to select reverse gear swiftly. This resulted in a dramatic clunk as the large gear lever in the centre of the floor by my side snapped off from its selector in the top of the gearbox. I now had something far more serious to consider and to...

Half way down the hill and within just one mile of our destination I heard a toot! Not just one toot but two or three. We never did find out who it was…. But the effect was catastrophic…I pressed the brake pedal and in an instant gravity took over! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our...

It came off somewhere between Ely and Wisbech in the fen country. Large lorry tyres weigh around 110 to 125 lbs or to those brought up to understand metric, between 50 and 60 kilograms. Once they begin to roll, they can create their own powerful momentum! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows...

Being a decent day we had removed the wheelhouse roof on the downriver trip and now the turbulence was causing the boat to pitch fore and aft. As the bow dived into the waves, long sheets of sea water flew over the hull and wheelhouse, but we knew it would not be for long. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as video...

It might help to explain that as the crane reaches further away from the lorry and extends its nose as it were, then it looses its lifting power. Can you imagine lifting a bucket of water with your arm fully outstretched? It’s not possible, but if you try with a bent elbow you can manage. The same principle works with the hydraulic crane. It is just like a huge hydraulic arm. Thank you for listeni...

In the home yard, I had found out that the lorry could be tipped over by the crane even with its outrigger legs extended fully. These legs extended on the side of the lift to counteract the effort of the crane at full extent. The crane was so powerful, it could at full stretch managed to tip the lorry to 45 degrees if the load on the crane was sufficient. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout...

Rising early on Friday I duly set off for Brighton. The car had performed really well so far but just as I was about to join the M23 at Redhill a large piece of exhaust fell off.  I stopped to put it in the boot and as I slammed the boot lid, one of the four lovely headlights fell out onto the road! By now it wasn’t just looking a bit tatty! Perhaps there really was some resemblance to a wreck on...

A long, long time before cell phones the equipment in the car was hands free. You simply pressed a button on the dash and it sent your coded number into the nearest Aircall base to your location. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube&qu...

Julian, his regular vet came to see what could be done and eventually decided that because he was too wobble to actually lift up a foot and evacuate the badness by penetrating the sole of his foot as was normal; he would have to put a hole into the front of his toe from the outside! Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photograph...

Food stop over, we took on the last leg of this UK bit and arrived at Newhaven in good time. After joining the traffic queues for the ferry we thought it prudent to cut the engine every time we moved up to the ticket kiosk just in case some bright spark on the ferry staff thought a car pouring oily smoke from the bonnet was not a good idea to put on the next ferry to France! Thank you for listenin...

On the day in question, it was an outing that the Cubs were to go on and the bus just would not start. Eventually the battery was flattened and thinking caps put on to find a solution. Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube". WEB SI...

One of those real life stories that make good T/V scripts.......... Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories. You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube". WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turni...