Richard Loveys started his career as a graduate trainee with the Rootes Group in 1963 and stayed with the company in various positions for some seven years. During that time he owned several of the Group's cars. After a short spell in the computer industry he returned to the automobile world and worked for the UK importer and distributor of Fiat cars. Finally he became a management consultant/lecturer at a university. He has been an active member of the Aston Martin Owners Club for many years and wrote the Shire book Aston Martin, which was published in 2015.

The Rootes Group once dominated the British motor industry, and its legacy lives on in thousands of carefully maintained cars - most notably Hillmans, Humbers, Singers and Sunbeams. In this book, using beautiful images from the Rootes Archive Centre, Richard Loveys details the Group's history and leading car models, from its creation as a car dealership by William and Reginald Rootes, through its transition into motor manufacture, and expansion by taking companies over and developing their car and commercial vehicle ranges. It was a significant contributor to the war effort in 1939-45, producing large numbers of military aircraft and vehicles, and in its post-war heyday produced such icons as the Sunbeam Alpine and Hillman Imp.

This excellent and affordable paperback ... is an ideal introduction to the once-vast empire, including its impressive war efforts and not shying away from its rise and fall.