Fred: The Definitive Biography Of Fred Dibnah

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Such was its popularity that a subsequent volume swiftly followed, offering many more memories of Fred through, images from throughout his life and insights into his fascinating story. Fred Dibnah MBE, born in Bolton, was a famous steeplejack and engineer, aswell as TV personality and steam enthusiast.

Even as a young lad, Fred was considered by his family and also his contemporaries as being a little odd, rather eccentric, for the young Boltonian eschewed the normal football and similar sports-related pastimes in favour of the world of steam engines, boilers and in particular the numerous cotton mill and factory chimneys that were as ubiquitous as blades of grass. The book features a brief introduction to Fred's early life but it is his work that the book is based on. For the young Fred Dibnah was captivated by the gigantic, gleaming steam engines with their enormous whirling flywheels that powered the cotton mills and that were jammed cheek by jowl into Bolton’s townscape. In this book, published to tie in with a BBC2 series, he shares his experiences as a steeplejack, his love of machinery of all types, and his forthright views on life in general. Fred had the uncanny and somewhat unique knack of talking through a TV camera so that the viewer actually felt a personal contact with him.Great British media characters emerged from the industrial poverty of the North West of England in the 1950's and 60's - Eric Sykes, Bernard Cribbins, Hilda Baker, Peter Kay. He brings the text alive with anecdotes and quotations aplenty but his writing is so eloquent he brings the day itself alive. This really is THE book to have if you want to discover the truth behind the legend that was and remains, Fred Dibnah.

Author Alan McEwen was a close friend of master chimney demolition expert Fred Dibnah for almost 25 years. Its pages are peppered with original photos of the buildings and their chimneys in their heyday where appropriate and the close-up shots of the drop preparation do give one a feeling of actually being there with him. Whilst the preparations of each, and indeed the occasion itself might be similar to the last, each and every one is an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable read. Especially poignant for me, as my father died a few years back of cancer and he was very much build of the same stuff. The numerous mill and other industrial chimneys scattered all over Bolton and the other neighbouring Lancashire cotton towns all radiating out from the hub: (Manchester, known as the cottonopolis), which for decades had been beautifully engineered and subsequently regularly repaired, would from now on require to be demolished.

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