Bus drivers turn over a new leaf

A new chapter...

London bus drivers have been taking a detour from their usual route and escaping to Hell Island to take their minds off the road while on a break.

Matthew Reilly's tale of a secret place where experiments have gone terribly wrong is on the list of Stockwell Bus Garage's new reading group.

The scheme is a hit with many of its 586 drivers, says the garage boss.

Those with English as a second language are improving, while others are getting back into the habit of reading.

Lending library

Driver Horatio Teixeira, 42, originally from Portugal, said: "I am always trying to improve my English and so am enjoying taking part in this.

"I have read two books so far, usually in my coffee breaks."

Operations manager, Graham Johnson, said: "We have got a small informal lending library here at the garage anyway and a lot of people already read on breaks so we thought this was a good way of taking it one step further.

"The aim was to encourage those who didn't read so much and support them as they developed their reading skills."

After Hell Island, drivers turned their attention to the rather more romantic novel, Woman Walks into a Bar by Rowan Coleman, in which Sam's faith in finding love is restored after friends set her up on a blind date.

The scheme running at the Go Ahead garage in Binfield Road was started as part of the BBC's current Reading and Writing (RaW) campaign.