Geoff Young: Inside the taxi

By MARGIE THOMSON

Taxi drivers, points out Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt in his foreword, are the most vulnerable people in the universe. "They pick up bank robbers, perverts, drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, hit men, gang members, politicians, and pimple-faced obnoxious nerds, and they have the two things that every young hoodlum in the world desperately wants - a car and cash." That pretty much sets the scene for most of the stories in this book.

Young has interviewed an astonishing number of Kiwi cabbies and organised their pithy anecdotes under chapter headings such as The Demon Booze, Lewd and a Wee Bit Crude, The Tragic Side of Life, and so on. Chewing gum for the brain, and the kind of book some people like to read on the loo.

Coronet

$24.95