Bookshelf

I was given this as a Christmas present and have just finished reading it. 'Morris The Cars and the Company' by Jon Pressnell is recently published and gives a comprehensive account of the story of the development of the company and the creation of its first cars in 1913. There is a lot of detail about the cars prior to the creation of BMC and including the 1950s Oxford family and later Minors. The FWD stuff and the Farinas are given much less attention as they are regarded by the author as BMC corporate rather than specifically relevant to Morris. The later BL Marina is given a chapter to itself as this was a Morris for nearly all its global markets. I particularly enjoyed reading about some the personalities such as Leonard Lord and Miles Thomas and the amount of infighting going on. William Morris was a strong man but he didn't seem to be able to keep hold of his best people. There're also few sections on Australia and New Zealand where Morris was keen to push a six cylinder car - with mixed results.

All in all a good read for anyone interested in the company. It has a published price of £40 or $56(US I presume) but the well know internet book seller should be able to supply it for 40% less than that.

Recommended

Nick