I'm a retired CEO who enjoyed a successful, award-winning career of more than 40 years in the motor trade. Today, life has taken me in a very different direction. During the spring and summer, I work as a house tour guide at Mapperton, the historic home of the Earls of Sandwich. For the rest of the year, I travel throughout the South West giving free illustrated talks about Mapperton to museums, historical societies, and other interested groups.

However, my working life began in a very unexpected way. A serious cycling accident left me temporarily unable to write or paint, forcing me to postpone my college studies and my ambition of becoming a teacher. To relieve the boredom while I recovered, I left college and joined WH Smith as a trainee manager.

What was intended as a temporary diversion became the start of an unexpected and highly successful career. I was soon entrusted with running one of the company's paperback departments, where my creative and entrepreneurial approach helped to increase sales significantly. Combined with my lifelong love of books, this success brought me to the attention of Penguin Books, who unexpectedly headhunted me. In the mid-1970s, at the age of just 19, I joined this iconic publishing house as its youngest-ever sales representative, based in central London.

The two years I spent at Penguin remain among the most memorable of my life. They gave me the opportunity to meet many distinguished authors and personalities, including Michael Bond, Richard Adams, and Joanna Foyle of the famous Foyles bookshop. An equally unexpected highlight was renewing a childhood connection with Kaye Webb, the legendary editor of Puffin Books. Having been one of the founding members of the original Puffin Club, I struck up an unlikely friendship with her that became one of the most cherished memories of my time at Penguin.

For many years, my experiences as a Penguin representative were largely forgotten until I happened to mention them to a friend. He suggested that the anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories would make a fascinating talk. Fortunately, I had kept a continuous diary since 1977, which enabled me to piece together those remarkable years and create Diary of a Penguin Rep.