REVIEWS
Title: Eastern National: Memories of a Bus Company
Editor: Andy Gipson
Publisher: Omnibus Society, Eastern & Southern Branch
ISBN: 978-1-90909-127-6
Specification: 210mm x 148mm, 168pp, softback
Price: £12 (plus £3 postage for non-OS members). Order from Ian Barlex, 3 Caledonian Close, Ilford, IG3 9QF, e-mail IB@chadwellassociates. co.uk. Cheques payable to The Omnibus Society, Eastern & Southern Branch.
The history of most major British bus companies is pretty well documented these days, and it is good that we are getting books which fill in the life, the humanity if you like, of operators between the bones of those histories.
When commissioned pre-pandemic, this new book was intended to be part of the 2020 celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of Eastern National, now First Essex Buses. Sadly some of the celebratory activities did not take place, but at least the book survived unscathed. Unusually it is published by one of the Omnibus Society’s local groups, the Eastern & Southern Branch, rather than the society itself or one of its two historical research groups.
There is a brief summary of the company’s history, reminding us that at one time it had a Midland area…
