>>I've had some personal "hardboiled" experiences,
but I'd like to hear
yours.<<
I wouldn't post this experience to the list if it didn't
involve a book.
I was walking back from the pub one night with a friend when
we were set
upon by two thugs. They weren't out to mug anyone, just to
give someone
(anyone) a good kicking. I managed, after being knocked to
the ground
and booted in the head, to escape, and ran into a small
park.
Unfortunately I soon found the only exit from the park was
back the way
I'd come, i.e. back towards the thugs. I turned round to see
them both
running towards me. For some reason a scene in a Desmond
Bagley
thriller ('The Tightrope Man,' I think) sprang to mind - a
scene where
the hero is being attacked and evades the attacker by
'selling him the
dummy' (i.e. feinting one way and running the other). Well, I
ran at
these two thugs and sold them both dummies, picked my friend
off the
ground, hailed a passing taxi, and made it home it with only
cuts and
bruises rather than a fractured skull. So, the next time
anyone's
mother tells them off for hving their nose in a thriller when
it's sunny
outside etc., you can tell them that I'd've been in hospital
if it
hadn't been for a book.
(Incidentally, I got a very funny look from the policeman
when he asked
for a description of the thugs and I replied, truthfully,
that one wore
a t-shirt with a picture of Sir Kenneth Newman [then London's
chief
policeman] on it with the words 'Go ahead, punk, make my
day.')
-Stephen-
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