The British Motor Industry »

Award-winning author Jonathan Wood's Wheels of Misfortune: The Rise and Fall of the British Motor Industry, (1988) received accolades in both Britain and America. In 2006 he presented the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture on Sir Alec Issigonis, creator of the Morris Minor and the Mini. He is the author of over 35 books, including several past titles for Shire.

Austin, Hillman, Morris, Standard and Wolseley were a handful of the myriad marques that once constituted Britain's indigenous motor industry. Born in 1896 into the high summer of Victorian prosperity, the native British industry survived until the collapse of The Rover Group in 2005. Jonathan Wood chronicles this industry's 109-year life, from its production of hand-made bespoke automobiles for the fortunate few to the arrival of mass production to provide cars for the many. He looks at the factories and the people who worked in them, and examines the role played by the component manufacturers that serviced the industry. Wood also offers explanations as to why motor manufacturing followed the British motorcycle, bicycle and cotton industries into oblivion.

Birth of an Industry, 1896-1914 5

Morris Leads The Way, 1918-29 19

March of The Big Battalions, 1930-45 29

Cars for World Markets, 1945-58 39

Boom Then Bust, 1959-74 51

Epilogue: 1975 TO DATE 60

Further Reading 63

Places to Visit 63

Index 64