Confessions of a Travelling Salesman Read online

  It’s girls and laughs galore from the moment Timmy enrols on the HomeClean Salesman’s Training Course … right through to joining brother-in-law Sidney in selling the Noggett ‘Nuggett’ – the incredible Japanese multi-purpose cleaner.

  Door to door selling with a team of hand-picked Japanese lovelies can’t be bad – or can it?

  Readers of Timmy’s previous amorous adventures will know the answer to that one!

  CONFESSIONS OF A TRAVELLING SALESMAN

  Timothy Lea

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  In which Timmy is enrolled for the HomeClean Salesman’s training course and shares an interesting experience on a vibrating bed with a friendly physiotherapist

  Chapter Two

  In which Timmy goes to Knuttley Hall to learn all about selling and becomes involved in a drinking contest, the prize being Mabel, the very able and available barmaid

  Chapter Three

  In which Timmy goes out on the road with the experienced Arthur Seaton, meets a lady naturist and helps Cheryl Vickers and her mother solve their mutual problems

  Chapter Four

  In which Timmy gets on the right side of a co-operative female demonstrator and parts company with HomeClean after a lady goes to unusual lengths to repair an injury she has done him

  Chapter Five

  In which Sidney introduces Timmy to a remarkable Japanese product and Mr. Ishowi and his two man-hungry nieces, Apple Blossom and Pearl Diver, girls who take Timmy to their hearts and Sidney to the cleaners

  Chapter Six

  In which Timmy finds that the Noggett Nugget leaves a lot to be desired and is entertained by the Daughters of the Cherry Blossom. A party which ends in unseemly violence

  Chapter Seven

  In which Timmy and Sidney go North on a sales tour and into digs with the amorous Mrs. Runcorn and her daughter Rita, and embark on a disastrous first day’s selling

  Chapter Eight

  In which Timmy strikes up a very close acquaintance with Mrs. and Miss Runcorn while Sidney suffers. Also, in which salesman Timmy is surprised on the job and has to hang on for dear life

  Chapter Nine

  In which things go from bad to worse. Sidney tries to sell out and Mr. Ishowi and the Daughters of the Cherry Blossom reveal themselves in their true colours

  Also Available in the Confessions Ebook Series

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  INTRODUCTION

  How did it all start?

  When I was young and in want of cash (which was all the time) I used to trudge round to the local labour exchange during holidays from school and university to sign on for any job that was going – mason’s mate, loader for Speedy Prompt Delivery, part-time postman, etc.

  During our tea and fag breaks (‘Have a go and have a blow’ was the motto) my fellow workers would regale me with stories of the Second World War: ‘Very clean people, the Germans’, or of throwing Irishmen through pub windows (men who had apparently crossed the Irish sea in hard times and were prepared to work for less than the locals). This was interesting, but what really stuck in my mind were the recurring stories of the ‘mate’ or the ‘brother-in-law’. The stories about these men (rarely about the speaker himself) were about being seduced, to put it genteelly, whilst on the job by (it always seemed to be) ‘a posh bird’:

  ‘Oeu-euh. Would you care for a cup of tea?’

  ‘And he was up her like a rat up a drainpipe’

  These stories were prolific. Even one of the – to my eyes – singularly uncharismatic workers had apparently been invited to indulge in carnal capers after a glass of lemonade one hot summer afternoon near Guildford.

  Of course, these stories could all have been make-believe or urban myth, but I couldn’t help thinking, with all this repetition, surely there must be something in them?

  When writing the series, it seemed unrealistic and undemocratic that Timmy’s naive charms should only appeal to upper class women, so I quickly widened his demographic and put him in situations where any attractive member of the fairer sex might cross his path.

  The books were always fun to write and never more so than when they involved Timmy’s family: his Mum, his Dad (prone to nicking weird objects from the lost property office where he worked), his sister Rosie and, perhaps most importantly, his conniving, would be entrepreneur, brother-in-law Sidney Noggett. Sidney was Timmy’s eminence greasy, a disciple of Thatcherism before it had been invented.

  Whatever the truth concerning Timothy Lea’s origins, twenty-seven ‘Confessions’ books and four movies suggest that an awful lot of people share my fascination with the character and his adventures. I am grateful to each and every one of them.

  Christopher Wood aka Timothy Lea

  CHAPTER ONE

  Phew! I will remember that afternoon with the wives of the Old Rottingfestrian Rugby Club if I live to be thirty-two. Talk about knackered! Sidney was coming apart at the seams like a dock-struck banana and I had about as much snap, crackle and pop as a piece of wet confetti. Those women were insatiable, or to put it in another way: that is just what they wanted you to do – put it in another way.

  Of course, it is all very understandable, isn’t it? I mean, if your old man went off every Saturday afternoon and ended up with fifteen other blokes all putting their arms round each other and pushing, you might feel the desire for a bit of a rough and tumble yourself.

  I have a theory that the birds who fancy rugby players go a bundle on all the muscles, but reckon they can put them to better use than chasing a squashed soccer ball round a muddy field. When they find that the chaps still prefer snuggling down with each other amongst the cowpats while they are expected to cut piles of corn beef sandwiches or refill the milk jugs, it is not surprising that they begin to think longingly of a couple of balls dropping lazily between their own uprights.

  This was certainly the case with the Old Rottingfestrian ladies whose speed into the loose mauls would have been the envy of their better halves. I have not seen such lack of inhibition since Aunty Flo filled her knickers with crisps and danced the hokey-cokey at the British Legion Ladies’ Night – the last she ever went to.

  When we creep away from this scene of sexual carnage, I can see that Sidney is not only exhausted but well-choked.

  ‘Not to worry, Sid,’ I say cheerfully, ‘it was a lousy chandelier, anyway.’

  ‘That’s not the point,’ he grunts. ‘Someone might have done themselves a serious injury.’

  ‘You stood more chance of injury yourself when that bird started thumbing through her “Perfumed Garden” for new ideas. I told you that position was for pregnant hunchbacks.’

  ‘Probably why you see so few of them about. Blimey – I thought I had bits of that chandelier wedged in my backbone.’

  ‘At least you discovered it was plastic, Sid.’ Sid looks at me a bit narky. ‘I mean the chandelier, Sid.’

  For those of you who have not had the pleasure before, I had better say that my name is Timothy Lea and that Sidney Noggett is my brother-in-law and part-owner of the Cromby Hotel, or Super Cromby as it will be known when the banging stops. Details can be found in a smashing book (‘once I put it down I could not pick it up again’ – Harold Wilson), available from all top class bookstalls and entitled ‘Confessions from a Hotel’. And, talking of books and bookstalls, don’t you think it is time you dug into your pocket and bought this one? The man by the cash register is beginning to look at you a bit old-fashioned like. It gets better, honest it does.

  Anyway, back to the plot: Sidney is part owner because Miss (‘call me Queen
of the Boozers’) Ruperts came into the mazuma that bought the property company that owned the sites on either side of the Cromby – still with me? Good! She is advised by one Doctor Walter Carboy, whose main medical experience seems to have been in the area of curing wallet fatness. I have a constant fear that they might get spliced and really put the screws on Sidney but he reckons that Doctor ‘Conman’ Carboy already has a few wives scattered about and only needs one more for the police to start hollering ‘Bingo!’.

  Despite not getting lumbered with Miss Ruperts’ hand and regions adjacent, Carboy still has considerable influence over the old soak and has voted himself onto the Board of the Company which is to run the Super Cromby. The only thing he has not been able to change is Miss Ruperts’ intention of restricting the clientele to geriatrics. These are not, as you might think, German fast bowlers but old people.

  Now, I have nothing against old people, my old mum and dad being a bit that way inclined, but they do slow things up a bit. Also, as Sidney has pointed out in the past, they need special attention, and the more specialists there are about, the less likely Sid and I are to be two of them. In addition, people with qualifications and experience come expensive. All in all, Sid and I stand to lose out all over the shop once the Cromby becomes a glorified old people’s home and I know that the matter is beginning to prey on Sid’s mind. I know because he keeps rabbiting on about it.

  ‘Timmo,’ he says, ‘I don’t fancy this geriatric lark.’

  ‘I’m with you, Sid. I mean, I fancy a mature bird but this is ridiculous.’

  ‘I wasn’t just thinking about the fringe benefits, Timmo. In fact I wasn’t just thinking about being kept awake at night by the squeak of bathchairs. It’s this whole hotel business that’s getting me down.’

  ‘I know how you feel Sid. It’s so static isn’t it?’

  ‘Exactly, Timmo. And what’s more, I get fed up with being in the same place the whole time. You know what I mean, don’t you? When you’ve done a bit of window cleaning, driving instructing, and been whipped round the Med a couple of times, you get used to a change of scene.’

  Sid is dead right there. In the hotel business the only novelty about the job is the faces of the birds you wake up on. You can reckon on half your female customers trying to get you into bed as surely as night follows day. Of course, I am not complaining about this. I fancy a bit of the other as much as the next man – oops, sorry vicar! – and I know that a lot of the reason for Sid being so narky is that wifey – my sister Rosie – has decided to come down and make the Cromby her permanent abode. This is cramping Sid’s style with the ladies a little more than somewhat. Rosie is great with another infant Noggett and reckons that the Hoverton ozone is just what she and her travelling companion need. Hoverton is the name of the oil slick with buildings that taxes the last ounce of inspiration from the British Travel Association’s copy-writers. And I am not kidding about the oil. Last year most of our customers were pilchards waiting to move into bigger tins.

  But back to my conversation with Sidney.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he says. This is disturbing news because every time Sid thinks it costs me money or causes me pain – sometimes both.

  ‘Really, Sid?’ I say, trying to sound wary but enthusiastic, very difficult it is, too.

  ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘Let’s face it. This place is going to run itself from now on. With Carboy and five hundred senior citizens queuing up for the best deckchairs, there’s nothing here for us.’

  ‘What was there here for me in the old days?’ I ask. Well, one likes to know, doesn’t one?

  ‘Nothing settled,’ says Sid cautiously. ‘But I did say that if we expanded I would see you all right.’

  ‘But we’re not going to expand?’

  ‘Not in the hotel business, no. I don’t mind being nice to people occasionally, but all the time, that’s different. They get on your nerves, don’t they? Our, I mean, my stake in this place is protected whether I stay here or not, so I reckon that I can afford to expand my interest into other fields.’

  ‘Such as, Sid?’

  ‘Well, like I said, Timmo. I’ve been thinking.’

  ‘You did say that, Sidney.’

  ‘And it occurred to me that all the training I had when I was with Funfrall was about flogging things. It suits my particular temperament too. I mean, I like people enough to be able to sell them something, but when they come back and say it doesn’t work I’ve gone off them enough to be able to tell them to beat it.’

  ‘You’re very lucky, Sid. What are you going to sell?’

  ‘I haven’t decided yet. I want to give the matter some very serious consideration. We don’t want to go out there with just any old rubbish.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘You want to come in with me, don’t you?’ Sid’s voice does a nice job at the amazed betrayal level. ‘This could be it, mate. This could be the big one.’

  ‘I’ve heard you say that before, Sid. If you got me a job as a shark trainer you’d be telling me how marvellous it was.’

  A little green pound sign lights up behind Sidney’s eyes.

  ‘Hey, wait a minute. That’s not bad, Timmo. All these dolphinariums springing up all over the place. If we smeared you with some kind of repellent –’

  ‘Forget it, Sid. You’re not getting me playing “Please Sir” with a tankful of sharks.’

  ‘I’d take care of all the insurance.’

  ‘Forget it! Come on, Sid, do you have a proposition or don’t you?’

  ‘Of course I do. Have a bit of faith. What I suggest is this. I’ll stay here and look for the right product – I’ve put out a few feelers already – and you can go out and get your sales training.’

  ‘“Sales training”? What am I going to do then? Oh, wait a minute, don’t tell me, I know. I’m going to be bloody sales rep., aren’t I? And you’re going to sit back here on your arse bawling me out because I havn’t sold enough of the stuff’.

  The expression on Sid’s face suggests that he has been caused physical pain. ‘Don’t say that word.’

  ‘What? “Arse”?’

  ‘“Sales rep.”! You call anyone a rep. and they’ll chuck in their cards immediately. You have to give the job stature. The very least you can be is an Area Manager.’

  ‘That sounds quite important.’

  ‘That’s exactly what it’s meant to sound. It’s like packets of detergent. The smallest one is always called “Jumbo size”. But that’s enough from me. You’ll be learning all about that when you do your training.’

  ‘Do I have to be trained, Sid. Can’t I pick it up as I go along? Surely you could train me?’

  ‘I could, Timmo, and very good it would be though I say so myself, but I want to be able to concentrate on finding the right product. Something that fills a housewife’s needs.’

  ‘We’ll be selling to women, will we, Sid?’

  ‘I think that’s what we’re best at, Timmo.’

  ‘And where am I going to get this training?’

  ‘Very important question, Timmo. Luckily, I anticipated your enthusiasm for this new career opportunity and I wrote off to a number of our larger companies who run training schemes for salesmen.’

  ‘That’s very thoughtful of you, Sid. But, I thought I was going to work for you.’

  ‘You are, Timmo. Once you have completed your training, and I have found the right product, you will resign and join MagiNog.’

  ‘MagiNog? Blimey! It sounds a bit underhand, Sid. I mean, taking all their training and then pissing off to join you.’

  ‘It’s a fact of business life, Timmo. It could happen to anyone. One day, when we’re a household word, it will be happening to us.’

  ‘I don’t see MagiNog as a household word somehow, Sid.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Timmo. You concentrate on spelling your name right on the application forms.’

  I must say you have to give Sid full marks for effort. In the next few days a sackful of env
elopes arrive with my humble name picked out by electric typewriter, and I plough through sheets of application forms. Previous jobs, exam results, army service, hobbies, interests.

  ‘Put down everything you’ve done,’ says Sid cheerfully. ‘It’s all evidence of your experience at meeting people. That’s very important in selling.’

  Another couple of weeks go by and I get three letters from different firms asking me to report for an interview. Sidney is well chuffed because one of these comes from HomeClean Products who he reckons can sell vaginal deodorants to skunks.

  I view my forthcoming change of career with mixed feelings. The Cromby is beginning to fill up with cantankerous old fogies but at the same time, there are a few additions to the staff who definitely justify more than a quick spot of eyeball bashing. One in particular is Miss Alma Stokely, our new physiotherapist, or, as Sid scornfully puts it, a masseuse with ‘O’ levels. Sid is a bit narky because he reckons that Alma owes her position to a special relationship with Doctor Carboy. I don’t know about special – any kind of relationship with Alma would suit me down to the ground – or any other handy flat surface. She is one of the cool, lady-like ones you catch shooting crafty glances at the front of your jeans. She wears tight cashmere sweaters and fiddles with her felt pen when she is talking to you. I reckon she is trying to fight an irresistible desire to rip my y-fronts off, but then I feel that about a lot of women – and have the scratches on my wrists to prove it.

  The day before my interview in London I look through the door of her office and there is this bleeding great couch taking up half the room. It is in three separate pieces, and I am puzzling put how it works when the lovely Alma glides up behind me.

  ‘I see you’re gazing at my new toy,’ she purrs.

  ‘Er, yes, Miss Stokely,’ I mumble, because the twinset and pearls types always bring out the peasant in me. ‘What is it?’