A handsomely illustrated history of the steam engine and its enormous impact on Britain’s Industrial Age.

Fred Dibnah has always been a man out of his own time. Growing up as a youth in the 1940s in Bolton, Lancashire, he lived near the railway lines and there began a lifelong fascination with steam locomotives. Fred's love for all things steam is also a practical one; for the last 27 years, he has been renovating a steam boiler and engine in his back garden and it is now nearly complete. As Fred grew up, despite parental disapproval, he pursued his first goal of becoming a steeplejack, and it was his outstanding skill in his chosen profession that led to his first appearance on television David Hall, once a journalist and teacher, has been a producer for over 25 years, making programmes for the BBC, ITV Network, Channel 4 and other broadcasters around the world. He has worked with Fred since 1998 on Industrial Age, Magnificent Monuments, Victorian Heroes, Buildings of Britain and Age of Steam. His latest work includes a documentary on Fred's garden and Founders of the Great Dynasties for the History Channel International. He enjoys travel, fell-walking and watching Manchester United whom he has followed since the 1950s