Everybody around the world will recognise the London taxi, the iconic 'black cab', but few people outside the trade know much about what it is like to drive one for a living. Veteran cab driver Mick Rose says that some people have the oddest ideas about London's world-famous cabbies and the historic trade to which they belong, and worse still, put some of them on the Internet! Reading some of these strange stories prompted Mick to write 'A London Cabbie's Year'. Mick, who has held a London taxi driver's licence since 1971, answers all those questions you always wanted to ask about the London cabbie and his trade, describing the working year, month by month, how the work changes as the seasons change, the conversations he's had with his passengers, some of the odder jobs he's done and the characters he's known. Mick also discusses the Knowledge of London, the strenuous test that every London taxi driver has to pass, what it is like own and maintain a cab and the regulations that demand that it is kept in top condition.
He also has a few choice words to say about the present licensing authority, Transport for London and how both London mayors, Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone have done little good for the trade that is so representative of the capital.