Title: BET Group Bus Fleets — The Final Years
Author: Jim Blake
Publisher: Pen & Sword Transport
ISBN: 978-1-47385-726-1
Specification: 235mm x 165mm, 138pp, hardback
Price: £25
For his 14th birthday, Jim Blake — who turns 70 at the end of this year — was given a camera, which he took in pursuit of buses, coaches and trains throughout the rest of the 1960s.
This is a selection of the BET-owned vehicles he photographed then, all in black and white, many in his native London — especially at Victoria Coach Station and Wembley stadium — others on family holidays and enthusiast outings as far north as the territories of Ribble and Northern General and west into South Wales. A good proportion of show coaches.
Most of us are honest enough to admit — at least to ourselves — that some of our early photographs are not our best. Some of these fall short of perfection if you are looking for ideal standards of sharpness, contrast and composition, but the subjects they capture make up for this in interest.
It also is notable that things we might not include in a picture we take today, or perhaps cursed when they intruded in a viewfinder decades ago, become fascinating in their own right in a book like this.
A case in …
