Inspector Recalls

Memoirs of a Railway Detective

Now in his 60s, a former international executive with Microsoft Corporation and GlaxoSmithKline, Graham Satchwell, looks back on his time as a Transport Policeman across an impressive career. The book follows his progress from the time, in 1968, when, aged 18, as an unqualified laborer, he cheated to pass the police entrance exam. With extensive use of anecdotes his promotions to every rank within the CID are described with wit and brutal honesty. He became a sergeant at 21, an instructor at 24, and detective sergeant at 27. The account ends, after 31 years, at the end of the last century, when as a lawyer and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he was actually refused permission to retire from the Force.  This is full of dollops of humor, painful truth, and a vivid description of the macho policing culture of the time.