Superior Midlands coachbuilder rediscovered

For a long time the history of coachbuilding was a closed book, but more recently researchers have begun to fill the void. But the smaller companies can be overlooked, so James Fack’s book The Lost Coachbuilder, about W C Atcherley of Birmingham, is to be commended.

The pictures are plentiful, the text informative in Fack’s effective style. Bodywork on Invicta, Alfa Romeo, Brough Superior, Weyman-Humber, Hotchkiss, Rolls-Royce, Minerva, Daimler, Aston Martin, Bentley and Lanchester, from 1922 to ’38, is described and illustrated. Fack is interesting about all this, and includes personalities, buildings etc, with much about Railtons and Broughs.

Published by the Railton OC (Atcherley made many of the bodies for these cars), it is available from the club at Fairmiles, Barnes Hill Road, Burncross, Sheffield S35 1RF, at £8.50 plus £1 p&p.