In his book Shane O’Sullivan, more commonly known as Jack the Hat, explores true stories of locals and university students alike persuading the reader to enter the what he calls “the Exeter bubble”. Jack’s taxi cab metamorphoses into a different, safer space from a counselling office to a football team meeting, to a café catch up, to a helpline to a priest’s confession box. He takes us along to meet a woman facing prison release shortly before we are greeted with the politics of student intramural football. The book will make you smile, cry and reflect. Thoroughly unapologetic, Jack provides a multitude of places and times as he explores Exeter, Devon, and South West England bending his modest and unassuming persona to the requests of his clients. Jack the Hat skillfully adapts his character to the people he meets being able to engage with the intricacy of student gossip and unveiling as the complex lives of colourful local characters through the lens of his taxi. Described by Classics Professor Mathew Wright as “engaging, funny, humane, warm-hearted, and full of human interest” Jack the Hat will give you an insight into Exeter citizens at their most spontaneous times.
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