Cambridge Buses 1 (Super Prestige Series)

The public transport scene in Cambridge receives a detailed historical and analytical description in a very readable format from author Paul Carter. In this first volume of a projected pair, the author deals with the period up to 1950. Active in Cambridge at that date, the Tilling operator Eastern Counties was almost two decades old, having been formed in 1931 from, among others, the East Anglian operation United Automobile Services Ltd. But it is not just the major operators that are examined.

The area was a thriving one for independents for many years - Ortona (another Eastern Counties constituent) and Premier Travel, as well as several smaller but no less important operators, spring to mind - and the author deals with them all, large and small, from the days of horse-drawn public transport, through a fascinating collection of motor vehicles of all shapes and sizes, to the new standardised designs that were being put into service in the early postwar period.

A lavishly illustrated book that does justice to an area not previously well served by the enthusiast press, it will be especially useful to all students of Cambridge and its transport.