BOOK FILE 1-2:ORIGINAL ROLLS-ROYCE & BENTLEY 1946-65

Post-War Bentleys in Classic Books

The latest book in the globally popular 'Original' series is Original Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1946-65. It serves as an excellent guide to the history of the post-war Bentley.

text:Hiromi TAKEDA

The 'Original' series published by Herridge & Sons is renowned as a photographic reference book for restorers, with vivid colour photographs and easy-to-understand text describing the mechanisms, styling, interior and exterior equipment and detailing of each brand of historic automobile, as well as model changes and optional parts from the period of production. Translated publications for classics such as the Porsche 356 and Jaguar E-Type are also available in Japanese. This alone suggests that this popular series is regarded as a 'standard' in the world of automobile literature.
The book introduced here is the latest in the 'Original' series. As the title suggests, it covers post-war Rolls-Royce and Bentley models with a focus on the Mark VI, the pioneer of the era, and its ‘big minor’ version, the R-Type, as well as the Bentley version of the R-R Silver Cloud, the S-Type. The 'Continental', the sporty version of the R-R Silver Cloud, is also featured. The book also delves into the evolution of body colours, interior trim combinations and other details. Of course, it also includes a detailed list of chassis and engine numbers, and is packed full of clues to understanding the original Bentleys of this time. In other words, the book is not only a restoration document, but a very useful buyer's guide as well.
The first edition was published in 1999, but this revised edition with added content has been republished this year. The author of the book, James Taylor, is a well-known British historian who has written a number of books on Rolls-Royce/Bentley. He has written other books in the 'Original' series, including those on the Land Rover Series 1, Range Rover, Triumph Stag and BMW M. Aided by this experience on his resume, Taylor has managed to write a compact yet comprehensive overview of a wide range of automotive topics.

ORIGINAL ROLLS-ROYCE & BENTLEY 1946-65
author:James Taylor
publisher:HERRIGE & SONS
p160/English

This is a revised version of an article that appeared in Flying B No 001 (2008). The information provided here was accurate at the time of publication.