Jaguar from the shop floor: Foleshill Road and Browns Lane 1949 to 1978

Very interesting, well written book. A good story of early Jaguar days from someone who was there.

Bought this as a present for someone so have not read it.

Purchased for somebody else

Attracted by the sub title as my 10 years at Jaguar slotted in the middle of the time line, I found this book a bit of a curate's egg. Most enjoyable were the accurate references to well-known characters of the era - Fred Gardner's terrorising of anyone entering the sawmill without a reason that suited him; 'Tatt' or Bert (not Burt surely - that was Lancaster!) Tattersall's lack of knowledge of anything electrical (Lucas did it all for him anyway!); Derrick (not Derek) White's engineering abilities; Bob Knight's self-admitted inability to make decisions (something he told me was missed during his interview with Edwardes' 'shrink', which led to him being appointed MD!); Bill Heynes' (not Haynes) loss of the aluminium Mark 2; Barrie Wood's tom-foolery; and Harry Hawkins' literal larger-than-life personality. I found the author's clear dislike for 'Lofty' England totally opposite to my experience of the man who became one of my mentors. Only half of the text covers the author's time at Foleshill and Browns Lane with the balance less interesting - covering his national service, restoration of MGs and the like, involvement in motor sport, and employment elsewhere. His chronology also seems confused in a number of cases, the most notable being his claim Geoffrey Robinson was a Labour MP before his appointment as MD of Jaguar whereas it was the other way around. The pedant in me also disliked the index where there seemed more omissions than inclusions. Most authors work on the basis that every person named represents a potential sale. An opportunity clearly missed in this case.

We own a couple classic Jaguar cars and we found this book to have a great deal of information as to the "whys and hows" of this wonderful marque of an automobile and how it all came to be.

This book was written from a birds eye view of Jaguar manufacturing in the 50's and 60's. Because of that view you get information that a regular author would not have. Worth reading and fills in some blanks.

I'm a about halfway through and enjoying myself immensely.

I got this as a gift for my brother and he loved it! He said it was loaded with great information and photos. I'm very pleased with this purchase

This is a great read. Very informative from a person who actually helped various Jaguar cars