Read Online I Drove It My Way by John Healy - Free Book Online Page A

this day, because they all assembled recently at Westminster Abbey to commemorate his 200th anniversary and Prince Charles laid a wreath on his tomb. He is buried in one of the world’s most prestigious places, Poets’ Corner, in the splendour of Westminster Abbey.
    Is it not ironic that I am writing about Dickens, and in a previous chapter I wrote about John Mills who, as a young man, played Pip in the Dickens novel, Great Expectations ? The film of the book was made in 1946 and also starred a teenage Jean Simmons. Charles Dickens died before he finished his very last book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood . What a weird name.

Chapter 27
    I was on the taxi rank at the Churchill Hotel when out came Jean Alexander, who used to play Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street . She wanted to go to Euston Station and on the way we had a little chat about Corrie. Poor old Stanley had shuffled off this mortal coil and left dear old Hilda all alone. (Of course, this was all just a story written for the soap opera.) I asked her about those famous flying ducks on the wall of her living room wall, and she said it would have been nice if they’d all flown off out of the window as they drove her mad. I asked her could I take a photo of a legend. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but you can take one of me.’ I thought the remark was quite witty. Then she said, ‘Wait until I comb my hair’. So the hair combing took place and I got a lovely picture of the famous Hilda Ogden in my taxi.
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    I have a great photograph of the movie star Charlton Heston, who starred in movies like Ben Hur , The Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes , looking into my cab window. He asked me what was it like to drive the taxi. I said it was very easy with such things as power steering and power brakes.
    â€˜It was a piece of cake,’ I said, then asked him a question. ‘What’s it like driving a chariot being pulled by four enormous horses?’ to which he replied, ‘It was a piece of cake!’ and we laughed. He told me he did not really drive the chariot, the stunt men did all the dangerous work and he did the slow bits. His long time wife was standing beside him and she laughed too. They were such a pleasant couple and asked what they shouldsee in London. I said to see the best of London would require a lifetime. As they did not have a lot of time left in the capital, I recommended the Tate Britain. I would bet money that they really enjoyed that. Sadly, Charlton Heston died in 2008.
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    One day I dropped a passenger at Charing Cross Station. When the fare was paid I moved off slowly and immediately braked. They had left the door open. Normally there is an audible alarm but obviously it was not working that day. I had done a little damage to another car and quite a lot of damage to my cab door. The owner of the car told me not worry about it as her vehicle was just a pile of old junk. I was relieved to hear this. I did not want a big insurance claim against me.
    This happened near the Queen Eleanor Memorial, which is just inside the station. There were twelve of these very ornate memorials erected by King Edward I in honour of his beloved wife. They started at the village of Harby in Nottinghamshire, and every day the funeral cortège rested, that spot was destined to have a memorial erected. The last one was at Charing Cross. Queen Eleanor was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, in 1671, Oliver Cromwell destroyed every one of these beautiful reminders of a King’s lost love. The one at the station is an exact copy.
    Charing Cross station was also the starting point for what became known as the Brighton Trunk Murders. In 1927, a corpse was found in a trunk at the left luggage department of Charing Cross station. Apparently the attendant noticed an extremely bad odour coming from a trunk and called the police. They opened it up and to their horror they discovered the torso