A Powys teacher has been telling the best jokes he heard on an epic 900 mile run from Land's End to John O' Groats.

Jon Doolan a teacher from Ysgol Llanfyllin has put together a new book about his adventure across the length of the UK where he looked to get a joke from everywhere he went.

“What do you call a man who runs the length of the country collecting one-liners?,” said Jon.  

“A running joke.”

The adventure which is now the basis for his new book 'Miles of Smiles: Finding Britain's Funny Bone' saw Jon complete a stand-up comedy set at an open mic night in Liverpool which “was in equal parts exhilarating and terrifying”, accidentally stumbling on a rural country show in Cornwall and being invited on stage and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

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“In terms of interesting people I met along the way, there was Elaine who let me sleep in her spare room in Garstang,” said Jon.

“She is a Strongest Man competitor, senior prosecuting lawyer, instagrammer, outdoors enthusiast, wife and mother.

“I was met by Marcus Mumford (not the singer) who is an adventurer and the current Guinness World Record holder for being the fastest marathon runner dressed as a toilet. He's also cycled a tandem bike round the world.

“I met a strange women in Cornwall who told me she'd eaten her cat's medicine, but it turned out to the be the start of a joke.

“I met a 71-year-old American man who was cycling LEJOG through Britain's hottest heatwave on record.”

However the trip was not all a laugh.

“There were countless times when smiling was the absolute last thing I wanted to do,” said Jon.

“On the steps outside the ASDA in Taunton, I broke down in tears. I could barely walk from shin splints and blisters the size of walnuts.

“Emotionally, running away from my family once I'd passed Welshpool was the hardest thing ever. I spent the summer running the length of the country and missing out on a summer of sunshine with my young daughters.

"I knew that the adventure had been my choice, but I also knew that quitting and going home would have been a regret I held for the rest of my life.

“In Liverpool, I was in pieces after near constant walking for 24 hours. I'd been racing up the Wirral to catch the ferry across the Mersey, just because I thought it would be fun, but I staggered out of Liverpool, exhaustion wracking my body, and I eventually collapsed in a park on the edge of town.”

However the laughter pulled him though

“I was also lucky enough to time my run to coincide with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which was incredible,” said Jon.

“The joke of the festival was from Masai Graham, who I met – ‘I tried to steal some spaghetti from the supermarket, but the female security guard stopped me. I just couldn't get pasta'.

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“In the end though, the smiles, jokes and kindness of strangers pulled me through. Of all the jokes, my absolute favourite was:

“Did you hear about the man who invented the knock, knock joke?

“He won a Nobel prize.”

Jon's Book can be ordered from Amazon here