TIME travellers, soldiers and Old Mother Riley have been keeping former Keighley man Terry Cavender busy at the keyboard.

The prolific author, who spent almost five decades with the Forces, has just released his latest book of tall tales following the success of previous whimsical offerings.

He is now working on a book about the variety artist Old Mother Riley as well as a mystery autobiography of a TV personality.

He said: “My fingers are thrashing across the keyboard like little pink maggots.”

The latest book is Another Three Tall Tales, which include the stories Exercise Burnt Toast 2, First Class! and An Awayday in Pompeii.

One story takes place in Singapore in 1967, where the men of the Royal Corps of Transport air dispatch squadron are preparing for an Escape and Evasion exercise.

The squaddies are sent into the “deepest, darkest” Malaysian jungle where they find two Japanese soldiers who had been in hiding since the end of the Second World War.

In First Class!, a middle-aged civil servant decides to chill out by travelling on a steam train on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Relaxed after lunch and a couple of beers at the station buffet in Pickering, he encounters strange happenings on the train.

In the final story, time travellers Maggie, Denise and Gill return from their holiday in 1941 Berlin. Recalling a visit to the ruins of Pompeii while on a Mediterranean cruise, they decide to visit the Roman town the day before Vesuvius erupts.

Terry Cavender was born in Keighley in 1947, living in the town until he joined the Army as a Junior Leader at the age of 15.

He was promoted through the ranks during the next 30 years, finally leaving the army in 1993 as a major. During that time he served in Air Despatch units at RAF Changi and Seletar in Singapore, where he took part in suppressing a local uprising.

After leaving the Army, Terry worked for the Ministry of Defence for a further 18 years, finishing his Forces career as Media Ops Officer for the Defence School of Transport.

Now living in Beverley with wife Maggie, Terry has written, produced and directed several stage plays, pantomimes and radio plays, and now concentrates on writing.

Another Three Tall Tales is available to buy from Amazon.

Terry’s previous collections of Tall Tales include stories like ‘Does the Fuhrer Live?’, ‘It All Came Out in the Wash’, ‘Off with his Head!’, ‘Too Old to Dream’ and ‘Sup it Up!’.

Terry Cavender’s memoir A Boy From Nowhere includes several chapters covering his formative years in Keighley, which he calls a “gritty northern milltown”. He also covers his three decades in the army, meetings with many celebrities, and writing and acting in plays and films.

Terry met Enoch Powell, Lord Prescott, Sir Harry Secombe, Barbara Windsor, Jeremy Kyle, key members of the Royal Family, Angela Merkel and the “odious” Jimmy Savile.

Terry said his autobiography has had readers both mesmerised and crying with laughter.

He added: “It is an hilarious record of one boy who lived life to the full, from my dad’s sheep rustling days in a motorbike and sidecar, all the way up to hanging upside down on a trapeze swing trying to win the part in a TV advert.”

Email cavers@cavers.karoo.co.uk for further information about Terry’s books.