The Life of LTC Rolt: Where Engineering Met Literature

In 1926, Tom Rolt who was then sixteen years old, abandoned his public school education.Having taken a job with a small firm of agricultural engineers, he realised that he had found his life’s calling.But the way ahead was neither smooth nor easy. Having secured a premium apprenticeship, the firm which took him on foundered and although he eventually qualified as a mechanical engineer, the 1930s depression made it almost impossible to find regular employment. Nothing daunted, with the encouragement of his mysterious companion ‘Cara’, he turned to writing.His literary career flourished alongside his association with the Vintage Sports Car Club, the Inland Waterways Association and the Talyllyn Railway.Between his Inland Waterways Association and Talyllyn phases, Angela, his first wife, left him to join Billy Smart’s Circus, and Sonia -an actress-turned-boatwoman - would become his second wife.Over the course of his life, he produced over thirty books, their subject matters ranging from