[2] In 2003 the author invited his nephew Nigel Newton, founder of Bloomsbury Publishing, to lunch at the Garrick Club in London.

[2] The main story begins in 1937 when brothers Wilfred and Duncan Scrutton run away from their home at Ferring near Worthing on the Sussex coast and travel to London.

Unfortunately, the depot has no destination boards for Sussex, but they do have one for Canterbury — for which the brothers set off via the Old Kent Road, accompanied by Homer's companion, a dog called Tiger.

They gain fare-paying passengers at Harbledown and begin a regular if slow service between there and Canterbury, and also acquire a conductor called Hattie, but rival companies eventually force them to move on due to the lack of a PSV operator's license.

The second half of the novel concerns events during World War II, the brothers volunteering for both the LDV and ARP and Hattie for the VAD.