|PIC1|Policing is a notoriously stressful occupation which leaves many hardened and cynical yet Robin Oake believes that ‘A policeman’s lot is a happy one’ and given his 42 year successful police career he’s certainly qualified to judge! In his new book he shares the story of both his impressive career and his Christian faith.

In Gilbert Was Wrong, Robin relates the dangers of the job, from policing the riots of the early 1980s to assisting with bomb disposal in a London under attack from the IRA.

Throughout, his faith sustained him and provided him with a constant source of comfort and strength. He tells how a pocket Bible which he always carried in his left breast pocket served to prevent serious injury on a number of occasions when punched, hit with a scaffolding bar and stabbed with a chisel. It also proved useful when opportunities to share his faith with colleagues and members of the public arose.

Laugh out loud stories outline some of the bizarre events which were all in a day’s work: the senior officer who blundered on stage in the midst of a strip club performance and became part of the act; the recovery of escaped apes in Manchester, handling a drunk and disorderly ‘Archbishop of Canterbury’ and following up on the suspected suicide of a poodle.

Robin writes, "At the end of it all, I could seriously thank God for calling me into the police service, for the opportunities I had had to serve Him, as well as Her Majesty…, for the enrichment of my Christian faith through that service, and the fellowship of Christian colleagues and the sheer joy of introducing many colleagues and members of the public to a personal faith in my Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Robin Oake was Chief Constable of the Isle of Man when he retired. During his career he was Chief Inspector to the Metropolitan Police and Superintendent to the Assistant Chief Constable in the Greater Manchester Police. He holds the Queen’s Police Medal.


Gilbert Was Wrong (9781850788379) is out from Authentic Media, priced £8.99.