Interest in old British buses has increased enormously in recent years, so that there are now several thousand of these vehicles restored and preserved for future generations.

Some were discovered over fifty years after their withdrawal from passenger carrying, serving as summer houses and tool sheds, among other purposes. Hundreds of hours of loving care were expended on them so that they could be seen as they looked in their prime.

This book traces the development of the omnibus through the horse-drawn era to that of mechanical propulsion, when, after experiments with steam and electric battery units, the petrol engine reigned supreme until just before the Second World War.