Vicky (Victoria Ward) was brought up in a small Yorkshire village, Cullingworth, on the outskirts of Bradford, close to Haworth, the home of the Bronte sisters. She lived with her parents and older brother, Michael, and her dearest grandma, Selina.

From being about eight years old, most of her leisure time was spent with her very dear friend, Mandy, who shared in many of her experiences and holidays.

At 15 years of age, she found herself a Saturday job in a local pet shop which led to her full-time employment, until she married in 1980. She had her first baby, Charles, who weighed only 720 grams (1lb 9oz), in 1982 and had her second child, Amy, in 1984.

In late 1987, she separated from her husband and in January 1988, ‘bumped’ into Dave, who happened to be her brother’s old school friend, whom she knew from an early age of eight. Vicky and Dave set up home together and commenced a new business venture, retailing kitchens from a fine showroom in Bradford. They married on Dave’s 40^th birthday in 1996. Vicky qualified as a driving instructor in 1993 and continued until 2005, whilst Dave set up a new.com business in 1998 with online hotel and accommodation directories. This successful business, and Vicky’s successful driving instructor training establishment, helped them move into a seventeenth-century period farmhouse near Skipton, Yorkshire Dales, where they both resided until Dave, very sadly passed away.

The book is based on Vicky’s numerous comical and funny encounters with the general public, accrued during her working life and her wide experience of travel and holidays. Vicky’s hero and very famous stand-up comedian, Ken Dodd.