Insider’s view of the postman’s daily round

Oct 13 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

KEVIN Boniface is a bit worried about the photograph supplied by his publisher.

“Is it the one where I’ve got spinach in my teeth?” he asks. “See if you can Photoshop it out, won’t you?”

Not being near my computer, I promise to have a closer look when I return to my desk.

The image was taken by his photographer sister-in-law Jo Shaw. “She probably did it on purpose,” says Kevin.

The little exchange between us is almost worthy of one of the observations contained in Kevin’s book Lost in the Post.

He’s been an operational grade delivery officer (postman) in Huddersfield for the last 10 years or so.

Early on he began keeping a diary as he was keen not to miss anything important, such as changing seasons or hairstyles.

Edited entries form the basis of his new book – a random collection of short and whimsical observations on the strangeness of the everyday life he witnesses on his daily rounds.

There is the Holme Close resident who sweeps his lawn with a dustpan and brush, the old buffer whose dream is to look inside the Grimscar post-box and the “wobbly New Age Romantic” who shows off in front of his Burberry-clad companion by trying to balance on bollards.

And then there is Rod Singleton, immortal sage of the smoking room and dispenser of wisdom on everything from plasma TVs to rabbit stew to Christina Aguilera.

Each page varies from a single line to four or five paragraphs.

There’s the postmistress woman who suddenly asks: “Have you always had a beard, or is it just me?”

And two teenage girls who asked if they could touch his van for luck. “I said they could. They touched the post box too.”

Kevin, 38, set himself the goal of writing about 10 things every day that he had seen while at work on Huddersfield’s streets.

“The test was whether I could still remember them at the end of the day,” he says.