Making Cars At Longbridge: 100 Years in the Life of a Factory by Gillian Bardsley & Colin Corke

Making Cars At Longbridge: 100 Years in the Life of a Factory by Gillian Bardsley & Colin Corke lands on the shelves of my shop.

Stroud: The History Press, 2011, Paperback.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Facsimiles;

From the cover: Containing unique images from the official company archive, this book charts almost one hundred years of car-making at Longbridge near Birmingham. The Austin Motor Company was founded here by Herbert Austin in 1905 and it has since been home to the British Motor Corporation, British Leyland, Rover Group and latterly MG Rover. Its products include some of the most famous British models ever produced: the pioneering Austin Seven of the 1920s; the classic Mini, introduced to the world in 1959 with in astonishing production run of 41 years and a final tally of over 5 million; the Austin Metro, trumpeted as the British Car to Beat the World; and in later years the best-selling MG TF and elegant Rover 75.

The factory has been a major employer and an integral part of the local community since its foundation. The sad events of April 2005, when MG Rover went into administration, will radically change the landscape. But the area is now looking to the future, never forgetting its long and proud tradition of manufacturing.

Very Good.

192 pages. 9¾” x 6¾”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Across The Roof Of The World by Wilfred Skrede

Across The Roof Of The World by Wilfred Skrede lands on the shelves of my shop.

The Travel Book Club, 1954, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Maps to the endpapers and blanks;

From the cover: A lone figure wandering in the vastness of Asia, Wilfred Skrede, a young Norwegian, saw many strange things which few from the West have ever seen.

He was no explorer accompanied by the equipment and porters of a great expedition, but a young man in wartime making his way as best he could to Little Norway in Canada across Russia and Turkestan, over the Himalayas, on to India and from there to Singapore and around the Cape of Good Hope.

Crippled and exhausted, but with mind alert, he journeyed along the tracks where once thundered the hordes of Ghenghis Khan and where centuries ago slowly moved the caravans on the route from far Cathay. In the Mintaka Pass, high in the Himalayas, his only signposts were the skeletons of men and innumerable horses that had perished along the way, their powdering bones vanishing in the winds of Time

Skrede was truly a man from another world treated often with hostility, indifference, even brutality and sometimes with unexpected kindness by people whose language he could not speak. Through every adventure and he had many his youthful resilience enabled him to laugh at himself, his sense of humour helped him to see hope where others might have seen none, but even he, with youth and hope on his side, was sometimes overwhelmed by unbearable loneliness. The miracle is that he ever survived to tell his story.

Good in Poor Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with several short tears and a little loss. Gently bruised at the head, tail and corners of the binding. Pages lightly age-tanned.

Green boards with Black titling to the Spine. 255 pages. 8″ x 5¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!