‘Welcome to an unseen world – unless you are a ‘cop’ of course. These are genuine stories of the tricks that police officers play on each other, plus a dose of funny police stories as a bonus. You won’t believe the extraordinary lengths some officers will go to, in order to ‘get one over’ a colleague, or the quick thinking and wit to make the most of a situation that presents itself. Police and graveyards, police and mortuaries, the ‘character building of Probationary Constables, the Florida job that wasn’t, the magic bank card, the ‘art of spinning’, the ‘wubbery’ chow mein – they are all in here.

Mention the words ‘blag’ and ‘blaggers’, and most people of a certain age will think of the slang word used regularly in ‘The Sweeney’ to describe armed robbers, who attacked security vehicles with sawn-off shotguns and pick-axe handles in the 1970/80s.

In this little book, however, you will discover a very different police meaning  – the ‘dark humour’deployed by police officers to play tricks on their colleagues. The ability to ‘wind-up’ staff was, and still is, seen as a desirable skill, funny, sometimes ‘well over the top and occasionally outrageously inappropriate. ‘Blags’ played on colleagues, some almost legendary, are enshrined within local policing memory and culture, and in this book the authors offer a light-hearted peek inside a little-known sub-culture. Not meant to be taken too seriously, it shows that even within the institution of the police service there is plenty of room for humour, and that the police are only human!’

Search on Amazon.uk, or go to the book page on this website for the link

I (Steve) am about to start putting together and proofreading our next ‘little’ book, provisionally entitled ‘It’s A Blag’. This is a book of pranks and funny stories involving Police Officers – (who do have a sense of humour – often dark though). To any of my ‘Job’ friends and colleagues who have some stories and would be willing to send them in, I would be really grateful. No matter how short or how rushed – I will sort them out and write them up. Please send to hibostinbooks@gmail.com by the end of the year. A little something you could do when you are bored after Christmas…..You will get a mention in the book and I promise the guilty will remain anonymous and the stories will be both printable and sanitised by the time they reach the page! I know there are more good ones out there and it would be a shame if they were lost forever. We are particularly light on OSU stuff – and those who were in that illustrious brigade will know what I’m talking about! Steve

Ok, it was just in Evesham, although it does keep selling out on Amazon. Steve did a signing today at Evesham W H Smith and sold all 15 copies they had. Here are a few happy customers….The book is really going well. Don’t think we will be doing anymore signings before Xmas but if you wanted a signed copy suitably inscribed as a gift Steve has just a few left in our personal stock that he would be willing to post to you. You’d have to be quick though due to Xmas post and personal commitments, in reality let me know by Wednesday.

We don’t normally do direct supply so it would have to be payment by bank transfer. Cost would be £14.95 plus £2 P&P in UK, £16.95 total. If you are interested e mail Steve on hibostinbooks@gmail.com.

Steve will be signing copies of Top Secret Worcestershire at WHSmith, 4 Bridge St, Evesham WR11 4SQ between 10am and 1pm on Saturday 8th – this Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading this. We are independent authors and publishers, ‘indie publishers’. This means that we do not have a major publisher or agent and their huge marketing budgets behind us. We have to create and do everything ourselves. The writing, the proofreading, the covers, the publishing and the marketing. This is incredibly difficult in a competitive marketplace which is to a large extent ‘sewn up’ by publishers, book chains and agents.

So the only way we can get your support and endorsement in a way that makes a real difference to the success or otherwise of our books is by you taking a couple of minutes to write a review on the Amazon.co.uk page of the book. Reviews have an impact upon how the Amazon computer ranks and markets books and a huge impact upon whether potential customers buy them or not.

There are many, many, thousands of fake reviews out there. In fact there is a whole hidden industry ‘selling’ fake book reviews. We will never ever do this, our books stand or fall on their merits, but it does make for a very unfair field of play. Amazon have been recently cracking down on fake reviews by means of checking whether you are a genuine Amazon customer. (have you spent £40 on Amazon in the last 12 months). This is a very clumsy tool which has punished good and bad, but at least they are trying.

So, if you felt able to do a review on a book you have read, we, and other authors, would be so very grateful. It’s easy to do. Find the book’s page on Amazon.co.uk, (make sure it’s this Amazon site), scroll right down and you will see a button marked ‘leave a customer review’. Press it and away you go.

We are grateful to you for reading to the end of this post and hope you can help us..

Steve & Mike

We now have a website! We would love you to check out bostinbooks.co.uk, have a look around, let us know of any suggestions for improvements, or about anything that doesn’t work via the ‘contact us’ or ‘comment’ sections. If you could ‘like’ and ‘follow’ us too that would be very much appreciated. I’m new to building websites so I need some nice people to start engaging so I can see how it all fits together and fix any problems. Regards Steve

Hoping to get the new website up and running properly with the correct address this evening so watch this space. Then once I get Mike trained up to post on it off we go into new territory

I’m building a Bostin Books website, hopefully linked with our facebook page and Twitter. Gradually getting the hang of it! So far all the joint books added and I’ve tested the ‘contact us’ button and the book links to their sales page. Next I’ll start to add solo books. Once complete I’ll map the correct domain name to the site and off we go! Steve If you happen across it give me a ‘like’ and follow and any feedback if it doesn’t work properly or looks wrong. This is my first ever website build….

On each book’s page there is a link to purchase on Amazon.co.uk. All of our books are available on other Amazon sites across the world if you are outside the UK