Description

This is the story of one of Britain’s outstanding family businesses. David Brown’s was founded by a youth of seventeen, in a back street in Huddersfield. It has now grown into a business that makes some of the best gears, castings and machine tools in the world, outstanding agricultural machinery and the great world champion of sports cars-the Aston Martin. Interwoven in the story is the unusual personality of David Brown himself, the present chairman of the company, who has been responsible for the major part of the growth of the organisation.

In this short history of the firm Mr. Donnelly brings alive the romance of modern industry, the hopes, disappointments and also the tenacity of mind and precision of skills that are the prerequisites of success. It is not a technical book, although it is about great technical skills. It goes some way to explaining how it is possible to marry an idea in a man’s brain to a steel ingot and to produce at the end a work of engineering art like the Aston Martin. For art and the human factor come into engineering more than many people realise.

As a backcloth to the David Brown story is the Yorkshire scene itself, the grey stones of Huddersfield where the firm started, the sweeping Colne Valley and the other areas into which its activity has spread. The story is of interest to all who are concerned with modern Britain.

Scarce hardback in generally good condition, black boards have some minor marking and bumping to spine edges, inside very clean and tight bound. Dust jacket is a little scruffy with scuffs and small tears to some edges and corners and slight loss to rear.