A mountain rescue leader says he will write the history of his team when he retires.

Garry Rhodes, who received the MBE in the New Year’s Honours, will record the story of the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, which he joined in 1974. He has attended more than 900 callouts with the squad, which was formed in 1968.

The 50-year-old works as a chartered landscape architect for Rochdale Council and lives in Tyldesley.

Among incidents Mr Rhodes plans to recount are a helicopter crash on moorland which caused the death of three people and, on a lighter note, the time his team turned up to an incident wearing make-up and Roman togas under their waterproofs after having to unexpectedly leave a fancy-dress party.

The fevered anticipation of the book seems to have created confusion among readers of his local newspaper, who have posted glowing references on its website to a great cook book they bought. It has been pointed out that this may have been authored by a different Mr Rhodes.