This week, with ADRIAN SHURMER, former policeman who this week released an update for his Official Guide to Hyndburn

BOOK: I came up with the idea for the guide because there were no maps of Hyndburn at the time and all the police were getting lost. I based it on a similar idea that had been published in Bolton.

HOME: I was born and brought up in Bolton and lived as a child in a terraced house in Sunlight Road until my teens. The house was tinged with sadness because my three brothers had all died before I came along so, understandably, I was a little over-protected.

MEMORY: A convoy of tanks rumbling through the centre of Bolton in 1945, when I was just three years old. They made such a sight and noise.

CAR: A 1936 Flying Standard, which must have been 25 years old when I bought it for £10. My parents couldn't drive, so I became their taxi service. I remember it had no heater and we had to wrap up in blankets when we went out.

RECORD: I was brought up in the rock 'n' roll era and the first record I bought was Cathy's Clown by the Everley Brothers.

HOLIDAY: We used to have a caravan at Knott End and went there every summer in a charabanc. I look back in horror today, remembering the time I spent a whole day throwing an iron ball with spikes up and down the beach. I didn't know then it was a landmine.

LOVE: I once had a crush on a telephonist at Bolton post office but was far too shy to ask her out. Girls were mysterious creatures. Happily, I didn't have such fears when I met my wife Barbara at Bolton Palais in 1966. We had two sons and recently became grandparents.

JOB: I joined Bolton post office as a telegram lad in when I was 16, in 1958, and made more in tips than wages. I think I used to have a little face that people felt sorry for. I used to enjoy presenting telegrams at weddings because you would often get a half-crown tip (12p) -- more than a week's wages. That would keep me in spending money for weeks!