• Terry Allan, the Transport & General Workers' Union leader
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of London's 20,000 bus workers, retired this week after 30 years' service with the union — and plans to start a new career as a thriller writer.
Allan became prominent during the early 1970s when he took on responsibility for criminal injury cases. Assaults on staff "became an enormous problem in London and some routes almost became unworkable," says Allan.
Before becoming a union official he had considered a different career — writing copy for comic strips. "I began in the bus industry as a conductor at Bromley garage in 1949," says Allan. "In the 1950s I also turned my hand to writing scripts for comic annuals, with stories about the American wild west and soldier heroes in the Burmese jungle."
"I thought there might be better prospects doing that. To improve my English I applied to take a TGWU writing course: however, the union branch secretary persuaded me to take a course on trade unionism instead and I became involved."