WE left Bill Neill's first part of his three-part autobiography with his resignation from de Havillands at Lostock over a matter of principle.

In this, the second book, we begin with a fishing trip to Norway followed by his joining Platt Brothers at Oldham where he turned an ailing engineering business into a world class company yet again.

Having grown up in Scotland and become, almost by accident, one of the post war aero industry's leading pioneers, Bill Neill presided over some of the better days of both this and the cotton industry.

Unfortunately, in both industries, from the late 1950s onwards he found himself fighting a losing battle as postwar reconstruction and a far from level playing field in Europe, America and Japan helped the destruction of Britain's manufacturing base.

The story has been told by countless historians, and not a few politicians, but in Bill Neill we have a man who, while mixing with both, remained essentially a working man who always looked to have a pound more coming in than was going out.

From wandering the massive, partly derelict Platt Brothers site collecting hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of scrap metal, to negotiating with politicians in the Sudan, Mr Neill's book reads as much like a thriller as an autobiography - and it is all true.

The book concludes with his return to Lostock, nationalisation and the effective destruction of Bolton's aero-industry.

Bill Neill, as ever, pulls no punches and spares no blushes.

An excellent, informative and enjoyable second book, we can only look forward all the more eagerly to the third.

A Pioneer's Progress - An Engineer Of Many Parts by William T. Neill (Cirrus Associates £12.95)