Chauffeuring

Carpentry and floristry seem to be the standard downsizing fantasies among City workers longing for less stressful, more meaningful lives, but personally, if Microsoft Excel spreadsheets ever became too much to bear, I would sell up and become a corporate chauffeur.

From watching drivers deliver executives to interviews, it has always struck me as the ideal stress-free job, combining, as it does, many of life’s most basic pleasures: shooting the breeze with important people, getting out and about, driving nice cars rapidly, overhearing gossip, sitting around reading and sleeping during the day.

And when I heard that the Sovereign Chauffeur Company in the North of England had set up a training course aimed specifically at executive chauffeurs, I booked a place straight away – though as I pulled up in a borrowed limo, and Hugh Millington, the besuited proprietor, approached, it was clear I’d made some kind of faux pas…

Read atTimes Online