Llyn E. Morris was born and brought up in north Herefordshire. He crossed the border into Wales to receive secondary and higher education: at Presteigne Grammar School and then the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and later the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth. He returned to his home county, where he was a lecturer at the Herefordshire College of Technology.

The advent of the internal combustion engine brought many changes to society, the most neglected of which is arguably the garages built throughout Britain to serve motor vehicles, which revolutionised rural life. Yet, for all the fame attached to the now well-known heroes of early motoring, their exploits depended upon the energy and elbow grease of the early garage mechanic, and the petrol served on the forecourt by his wife from a hand-cranked pump. This book is a reminder of those days and of those men and women who held the keys to the motor industry's success.