Gainsborough author Mike Clarke gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner workings of Border Control
Mike Clarke worked for 38 years in Immigration Control in and around London, first at 3 airports, Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, and finally on the streets of the great city itself. In that time, he encountered every scenario you could imagine – and some you’d never dream of!
No matter how unbelievable some stories may seem, all are completely true.
“All I can say is that every tale – barring a number of minor changes to protect both the innocent and the part-guilty, not least myself – is as accurate as my fallible memory allows,” explains Mike. “This book is written for all those men and women, of every rank and some now dead, who laboured, wholly unsung, often abused and largely in vain, in the United Kingdom’s old Immigration Service to maintain the country’s border controls...”
Planes, Passports and Porkie Pies – Slice One details the ups and downs of the first half of Mike’s working life at Gatwick and Heathrow: queues and crises, joy and despair, cock-ups, punch-ups, forgers, robbers, liars, lovers, thugs, drugs and always the poorest of the poor, and with pressure on the Control ever-growing amidst the early tell-tale signs, despite the so-called statistics, of its eventual and inevitable collapse.
Join Mike as he recounts just some of his more memorable moments – most of them funny, but not all – from a man wearing a suit filled with £80,000 cash to his part in the truly shocking sudden death of the Russian Atomic Clock.
Tags:
