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Earlswood Press
Earlswood Press is a small independent publishing company, specialising in travel and transport topics. Our aim is to maintain and improve the quality of independently produced books, both in content and production. We would be interested to hear from anyone seeking to have a transport or travel book published. To find out if Earslwood Press can help you publish your book, click here. At present we do not take fiction, poetry or children’s titles.
Published titles
London Taxis – a Full History
Bill Munro
London’s taxis are famous around the world, as much a part of the capital as the red buses, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Their story is a long and fascinating one, with constant challenges to the makers, owners and dealers
| London Taxis: a Full History traces the story of the London taxi from 1897, when the capital’s first horseless cab, the Bersey, appeared right up to the present day, featuring: The history of every major model and every known minor make, as well as the prototypes that never made it into production |
| New information about once-famous names in the industry |
| Over 150 black and white photographs, some of which have never been published |
| Technical specifications and production figures |
240 pages 200mm x 175mm paperback, RRP £15.99 plus p + p
ISBN 978-0-9562308-2-9
Special on line price
£12 plus £3 p + p in UK and Europe, £6 outside Europe
buy this and Taxi Jubilee for £19 plus postage and packing
see below
An Italian Home – Settling by Lake Como
Paul Wright
Just what is it like for a foreigner to live and work in a northern Italian village, and become part of the community? How tough is it to leave your home country and settle in a new one? What do you have to do to be accepted by the people who live in a village that has existed for over five hundred years?
Award-winning mural and Trompe L’oeil artist and stage designer Paul Wright and his partner Nicola found out the hard way, working, playing, laughing, eating and drinking alongside the residents of a beautiful lakeside village
Enjoy Paul’s dry Liverpudlian sense of humour as he conveys a vivid word picture of life beside the lake with their colourful and resourceful neighbours
240 pages paperback, RRP £8.99 plus p + p
ISBN 978-0-9562308-1-2
Special website price £6 plus £2 p + p in UK & Europe, £3 p + p outside Europe
"A charming storytelling style that flows very naturally ... a pleasure to read. Particularly suited to anyone looking for a way to pass a lazy Sunday"
Self Publishing Magazine
"Paul Wright's tribute to the robust pleasures of village life … brings out the generosity and humanity of the inhabitants of Moltrasio”
Desmond O’Grady, Italian Insider Review
See what buyers of this book think of it
London Taxis in Camera
Bill Munro
London’s unique taxis are famous the world over. London Taxis in Camera is a collection of specially shot colour photographs of preserved historic London taxis and some rare archive pictures. In landscape format to show the pictures to their best advantage, this book is a must for taxi enthusiasts and motor vehicle enthusiasts alike
175mm x 200mm full colour paperback, 96 pages RRP £13.99
Due out Spring 2012
978-0-9562308-3-6
Taxi Jubilee- 50 Years of the Austin FX4 London Taxi (Earlswood Press, 2009)
Bill Munro
For over fifty years, the FX4 London taxi has been as familiar a sight in Britain’s capital city as Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. ‘Taxi Jubilee’ tells the story of the FX4 over those five decades and also features many of the special versions ordered by the rich and famous, details of many versions sold abroad, other bodies built on its chassis and technical specifications of every major model
72 pages A5 paperback, full colour, RRP £7.45 plus £2.50 p + p
“Brilliant – I sat down to browse through it and read it one go!” Peter Simpson, Editor in Chief, Classic Car Buyer
Buy this and London Taxis - a full history for £19 plus postage and packing
see below
Buy London Taxis – a Full History, and Taxi Jubilee together
Titles in progress
A History of the People in the London Cab Trade (working title)
As the title states, this is an in-depth study of the history of the London cab trade through the people involved in it, going back to the very first record of a hackney coach proprietor in 1636, up to the late 20th century, featuring the stories of hackney coachmen, hackney coach proprietors, horse cabmen, early motor cabmen, the men who ran the various licensing office, knowledge schools, stables and garages, taxicab fleet operators and ‘mushes’, the ubiquitous owner-drivers. This book is aimed at those in the trade with an interest in its history, family historians who want to know the kind of life their cab driving ancestors lived and students of the social history of London who want to know more about the people who are involved in one of the capital ’s most famous trades
If you are studying your family history and have found a cabman or taxi driver ancestor, I ’d be very interested to hear from you. Sadly, all records of cab driver licensing were lost, either in a fire at the Hackney Coach Office or, much later during the Blitz, so it is not possible to trace your ancestor ’s records, but hopefully my new book will be able to give you a taste of the kind of life he led in the trade.
Please take a look at my blog, http://cabdriverhistory.blogspot.com/ for more information
William Beardmore, Field Marshall of Industry
A biography
Largely forgotten by modern students of industry and naval history, William Beardmore, Baron Invernairn played a pivotal role in the prosperity of nineteenth and early twentieth century Glasgow, his adopted city. His father, William Beardmore Snr moved from Greenwich, Kent to Parkhead Forge Glasgow to supervise the building of armour for the Royal Navy’s second iron warship, HMS Black Prince, sister shop to HMS Warrior, now preserved in Portsmouth Dockyard. He bought Parkhead, expanding it considerably, until his early death in 1856.
The younger Beardmore inherited Parkhead, becoming a pioneer in Scottish steelmaking, and in the new century moved into shipbuilding. Persuaded by his new young wife, Elspeth, Beardmore employed a young Ernest Shackleton and in loaning him a large sum of money, enabled him to finance his first Antarctic expedition.
Beardmore earned the honour, ‘The Field Marshall of Industry’ after the Great War, during which built the world’s first aircraft carrier, HMS Argus, Dreadnoughts, submarines, tanks, aircraft, artillery and munitions. After the war he built the R34 airship, the first aircraft to make a two-way crossing of the Atlantic. He moved way from armaments and into the field of transport, building cars, motorcycles, taxicabs, locomotives, aircraft and, for George Bennie a monorail, the Bennie Railplane. But the economic climate of the 1920s crippled the company and he was forced out of his company. He died in 1936, in his eightieth year.
This is a long-term project and I would very much like to hear from anyone with any connections with Beardmore, his wife, Elspeth, née Tullis or anyone who has an interest in either the Beardmores or the products of the factory
Earlswood Press, 10 Chaldon Close, Redhill, Surrey RH1 6SX
Tel: +44 (0) 1737 767517
Interested in old London taxis?
Then join the London Vintage Taxi Association
Click www.lvta.co.uk for more details
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