A FORMER Keighley man who served across the globe with the army has written a book about his exploits.

Terry Cavender’s memoir A Boy From Nowhere includes several chapters covering his formative years in his birth town.

He also covers his three decades in the army, meetings with many celebrities, and writing and acting in plays and films.

Terry said his book would have readers both mesmerised and crying with laughter.

He said: “It is a hilarious record of one boy who lived life to the full, from my dad’s sheep rustling days in a motorbike and side car, all the way up to hanging upside down on a trapeze swing trying to win the part in a TV advert.”

Terry, born in 1947, calls Keighley a “gritty Northern mill town” in his book.

He left home in 1963 to join the Junior Leaders Battalion of the Royal Army Service Corps as a junior private.

Over the next 30 years he was promoted through the ranks, finally leaving the army in 1993 as a major.

During that time he served in Air Despatch units at RAF Changi and Seletar in Singapore, where he took part in suppressing a local uprising.

The book also records “hilarious episodes that were self-induced” while he was with a tank transporter regiment in Germany.

After leaving the army Terry worked at the Defence School of Transport in East Yorkshire.

While in the army and civil service he met former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, Enoch Powell, Harry Secombe, Barbara Windsor, Jeremy Kyle, the "odious" Jimmy Savile and key members of the Royal Family.

Terry said these figures were in his book, “warts and all”, along with stories of his own involvement with the world of entertainment.

He has written, directed, produced and acted in several plays, pantomimes and radio plays, as well as playing the lead in a comedy film which won a coveted Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

While in the army in the Far East he played a background part in the film Stand Up Virgin Soldiers.

He his written pantomimes Aladdin, Jack And The Beanstalk, Treasure Island, Robin Hood and Cinderella.

Terry has also been chairman of listeners advisory committees for BBC Radio Humberside, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

A Boy From Nowhere is available from Amazon in both print and electronic versions.

Terry recently completed a follow-up book, entitled Three Tall Tales.