Coventry has a remarkable bicycle manufacturing heritage. From the first velocipedes built in 1868, the city went on to become the home of the British cycle industry and at one time produced the greatest output of cycles in the world – with well in excess of 450 individual cycle manufacturers over a 100-year period. The Coventry Machinists Company were the first in Britain to mass-produce cycles, and steadily, more and more companies were established in the city. Soon Coventry became internationally recognised as a place where only the very best machines were made, and the name 'Coventry' itself became a stamp of quality engineering and fine craftsmanship. Richly illustrated with over 100 outstanding images from Coventry History Centre, many previously unpublished, this is the first book of its kind to cover the history of Coventry bicycle manufacture and the people who built them. From Dunlop, Hobart, Singer, Premier, Rover and Triumph to other lesser-known local companies, their legacies are still enjoyed by cyclists and local historians today.

Coventry has a remarkable bicycle manufacturing heritage. From the first velocipedes built in 1868, the city went on to become the home of the British Cycle Industry, and at one time produced the greatest output of cycles in the world – with well in excess of 350 individual cycle manufacturers over a 100 year period.The Coventry Machinists’ Company were the first in Britain to mass produce cycles, and steadily, more and more companies were established in the city. Soon Coventry became internationally recognised as being a place where only the very best machines were made, and the name ‘Coventry’ itself became a stamp of quality engineering and fine craftsmanship.Richly illustrated with 100 outstanding photographs from The Coventry Transport Museum, many previously unpublished, this is the first book of its kind to cover the history of Coventry bicycle manufacture and the men who built them. From Dunlop, Hobart, Singer, Premier, Rover, and Triumph to other less well known local companies, their legacies are still enjoyed by cyclists today.

Coventry, home of the cycle industry, was also to become the birthplace of the motor industry when the Daimler Company became the first in Britain to mass produce cars in the late 1890s. Spearheaded by H.J. Lawson, Coventry soon became a hub of motoring activity, and by the early 1900s was teaming with small and large companies, testing cars, motor-bicycles and tricycles around the local streets and surrounding country lanes. Many of these companies had previously been established as cycle manufacturers, yet introduced engines to their cycle frames in various forms, as well as producing safer three- and four-wheeled experimental machines. Other companies were established solely as motor manufacturers, many were short-lived, but others would survive and prosper. This new-found industry soon attracted a new type of worker to Coventry, specialised in mechanical engineering. These men and their families came from all parts of the UK and beyond, and made new lives for themselves in the city. Coventry has been home to well in excess of 100 independent motor manufacturers, but in recent years the city has suffered greatly with the loss of huge companied like Jaguar and Peugeot. The legacy of many of these historic cars can, however, still be enjoyed through museums and private collections. This outstanding volume is illustrated with 200 archive photographs and ephemera from the collection held at Coventry Transport Museum, and is a valuable record of the motor companies and their machines, as well as the individuals who both founded and worked for these manufacturers.

The period of Britain’s Industrial Revolution was perhaps the most transformative era in the nation’s history. Between about 1750 and 1914, life and work, home and school, church and community changed irreversibly for Britain’s rapidly expanding population. Lives were transformed, some for the better, but many endured abysmal domestic and workplace conditions. Eventually improvements were made to Britain’s social fabric which led to the prospect of richer and more fulfilled lives for working men, women and even children. Focusing on 100 objects that either directly influenced, or arose from, these changes, John Broom offers a distinctive insight into this fascinating age. With plentiful illustrations and suggestions for visits to hundreds of places of historical interest, this book makes an ideal companion for a journey into Britain’s industrial past.

The author, well known as the writer of more books on the city than anyone, explores Coventry's history from Roman times through Earl Leofric, Godiva and the Norman castle, to monastic houses, including St Mary's priory. Coventry has a rich medieval heritage, and rose to power in the Wars of the Roses, when the royal court moved there. Major themes in the city's history are discussed, through previously unknown source material, covering the Siege and Civil War, education, health, the church, crime and punishment, and industries from medieval weaving to modern car-building.

These days, a nice original Vauxhall Viva costs an arm and a leg, but back in the 1970s, £100 bought you a 'good little runner', with the rust, bald tyres and dodgy MOT thrown in for free. All you needed was someone who knew how to fix it when it broke down! Brian Cunningham is that someone – or, at least, he used to be. Under the Bonnet is the totally true* story of being a car mechanic in the old days, when fixing a car was one thing, but keeping it fixed was something else entirely. These are the tales of a bygone age, full of secret scams, chaotic characters and cars almost bursting with personality. * some tales may be taller than others

NPR's Favorite Books of 2019 Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline Trilogy, three “literary masterpieces” (The Washington Post) whose narrator, Faye, perceives the world with a glinting, unsparing intelligence while remaining opaque to the reader. Lauded for the precision of her prose and the quality of her insight, Cusk is a writer of uncommon brilliance. Now, in Coventry, she gathers a selection of her nonfiction writings that both offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social, and artistic questions. Coventry encompasses memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about literature, with pieces on family life, gender, and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, Françoise Sagan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Named for an essay Cusk published in Granta (“Every so often, for offences actual or hypothetical, my mother and father stop speaking to me. There’s a funny phrase for this phenomenon in England: it’s called being sent to Coventry”), this collection is pure Cusk and essential reading for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, and dazzling to behold.