Ever since Arthur Daley first donned a camel-hair coat and Trilby, car salesmen have been viewed as macho and smooth talkin' kings of the forecourt.

Now a sales professional in Cheam has displayed a more sensitive side after his poetry was chosen for publication in a national competition.

David Rossiter, 61, showed his influences were more Betjeman and Tennyson than Barry Evans and Swiss Tony by answering a call for a Cheam poet laureate.

Despite a wave of local entries to the £1,000 United Press competition, his was the only work selected for a book of verse celebrating home towns. He has now crowned himself the Bard of Cheam.

He said: "I work locally as a senior car sales executive at Honda in Ewell, which may come as a surprise to many, as I don't think people in my profession are usually credited with much sensitivity.

"About a year ago, I wrote a poem about the process of a selling a car, and put it on a noticeboard at work. People enjoyed it and so I broadened out."

"It doesn't really help with the job, because people like you to be honest and calm when they are making pressurised decisions about spending a lot of money."

David's entry, Summertime in Cheam, is a Valentine to the "ragstone hue" of St Dunstan's Church and the splendour of Nonsuch Park.

It is not the first time the worlds of poetry and motoring have collided. John Betjeman famously composed Meditation on the A30, featuring the celebrated line: "You're barmy or plastered, I'll pass you, you bastard."

Extract from Summertime in Cheam

From Nonsuch House the clock doth Chime, To warn us of the passing time, In which we fade from young to old, As through the years our lives unfold.

In sunlit memories I recall, Our children back when they were small The playground, sandpit, and the swings, And walks in Nonsuch Park like kings.

Since Tudor times, the rising lark Has sung its tribute to this park There is no fairer place, it seems, On earth, or even in our dreams.