Fred: The Definitive Biography Of Fred Dibnah

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Over the past 25 years he has operated as a contributor to heritage sector journals whilst establishing himself as an accomplished author in his own right. This publication takes the reader on a fascinating journey during the making of Fred's last TV series in 2004. We are a sister company of the Slovenian Publishing House Pipinova Knjiga – which literary translates to Pipin’s Book. The book features a brief introduction to Fred's early life but it is his work that the book is based on.

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His name became synonymous with the stereo type no-nonsense, straight-talking Northern character, and of craftsmanship, hard graft and of daring-do. Wearing his early trademark stove-pipe hat he is the epitome of the great Victoria engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel as he works to reduce 200 feet of old mill chimney to rubble. By the employment of this tried and tested procedure, Fred almost made it into an art, because from the early 1970s his fame as an expert chimney feller became renowned.

He held these towering structures with great affection and he often related stories about the ‘hard men’, the chimney builders who erected them and of the men also, who maintained and repaired them: the steeplejacks. Fred's love for all things steam is also a practical one; for the last 27years, he has been renovating a steam boiler and engine in his back garden and it is now nearly complete. I think this is the best book in the dibnah series it covers the best points of all the others publications and goes into enough detail of freds life to make it interresting for most readers. 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.As one of the famous Bolton steeplejack’s oldest friend, Alan McEwen has a unique view of the life and work of the late Fred Dibnah, illustrated by many of Alan’s own photographs. Fred also had a profound interest in the many classes of steam locomotives that regularly clanked by close to his boyhood home in Burden Park, and he regularly visited Bolton Loco Depot, where he would spend hour upon hour, fascinated, watching and studying the various steam shunting locomotives and goods engines stabled at the sheds. As well as the good times and the not so good times there are also so brilliant, laugh to loud moments too, particularly when he relates some of the scrapes he got into. Fred's passion for the glories of the Victorian age and his fascination with the landscape he grew up in, plus his admiration for the craftsmen and labourers who made it all possible, captivate us on every page.

After he retired from steeplejacking he took to the road, looking at the achievements of the craftsmen, engineers, inventors and industrial workers whose endeavour made engines like his possible. He was a most brilliant, natural speaker, and especially gifted in being able to ‘paint a picture’ in his distinctive Boltonian accent. Indeed, many years later when he became famous, he would delight his audiences with his colourful reminiscences and adventures regarding the Lancashire coal mining industry. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Alan McEwen’s writing style and respect for accurate documentation serve to make a very interesting book even more interesting.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Before his death in 2004, Fred presented many popular series, including Magnificent Monuments, The Age of Steam and Made in Britain, all of which attracted viewers in their millions.