Fred Dibnah - Made in Britain

Oct 24, 2024 5:24 AM

Author:David Hall

In 2004, after felling his last chimney and retiring from steeplejacking, Fred took to the road on his beloved traction engine for the BBC series Made in Britain. Travelling the length and breadth of the country, the intention was to seek out the remarkable achievements of the craftsmen, engineers, inventors and industrial workers whose endeavour made engines like Fred's possible. It was a journey that took him to Britain's most iconic engineering marvels as well as less familiar sites: from the Forth Bridge and the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge to Europe's last deep-working iron ore mine in Cumbria and a local castings workshop in Bo'ness.

This behind-the-scenes account of that ambitious journey is made all the more remarkable by Fred's heroic efforts to complete it while suffering from terminal cancer. It is not only a glorious testament to our nation's industrial achievements but also a story of the friendships, unfailing courage and determination of the nation's favourite steeplejack.

Reviews

A wonderfully moving story about a remarkable man

—— The Good Book Guide

A rich blend of history and memoir . . . interesting characters and fascinating stories

—— Historic Scotland

Everything comes back to the land and the people. [Allison] artfully encapsulates the marriage of the universal and the intimate

—— Daily Mail

'[Allison] brings alive the ancient craft of the storyteller . . . some finely crafted phrases make it a good read'

—— Press and Journal

Mallinson is surely right to stress the one enduring quality of the British Army: 'operational resilience'

—— Saul David , SPECTATOR

Precise and profound

—— THE TIMES

Lucid, absorbing

—— DAILY EXPRESS

The numerous fans of her Aristocrats (in which number I include myself) will not be disappointed: here is the same judicious mixture of intimacy and scholarship

—— Antonia Fraser , Sunday Times

A Royal Affair is an entertaining tale ...Tillyard's account of the brothers is heroic...[she] tells this astonishing tale with bravura

—— John de Falbe , Daily Telegraph

She has returned to what she knows-and does-best, teasing out the bonds of love, hate and pretend indifference that bind siblings, no matter what their historical pedigree, into a cat's cradle of consequence

—— Economist

The story is brilliantly told. In its descriptive flourishes it is sometimes fearlessly novelistic, yet it travels long distances for scholarly scruples

—— John Mullan , Times Literary Supplement

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