This modest example of desktop publishing contains a surprising amount of new and valuable information about Ribble. For obvious reasons, details about most bus operators in the 1939-45 period are limited, but the author of this modest-sized book has unearthed much that is new. Most surprising is the obstinacy and obstructiveness of Ribble's general manager, the autocratic Maj Hickmott. Buses in wartime were overseen and ultimately controlled by the all-powerful regional transport commissioners whose instructions, I had always thought, were final. Not so at Ribble where the major and the North Western RTC Sir William Chamberlain probably clashed even more than they had in previous times when Sir William was a mere traffic commissioner. And traffic commissioners were far more hands-on in those days than their modern counterparts.
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