Matt Cooper

SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025The real story behind Dunnes Stores, the most quintessentially Irish shop of all, and the family drama behind itThis is the story of the extraordinary family behind one of Ireland's most famous businesses, Dunnes Stores, over three generations and covering nearly 80 years of retailing but going back as far as the 19th century. With drama worthy of the popular TV drama Succession, a real-life Irish family drama shows the children of a dominant founder argue as to who should run the supermarket empire after his death and take the money from it, and how they dealt or not, with addictions and ill health, including alcoholism. This is the story of excess, success and failure.

<p><b>The real story behind Dunnes Stores, the most quintessentially Irish shop of all, and the family drama behind it</b><br><br>This is the story of the extraordinary family behind one of Ireland's most famous businesses, Dunnes Stores, over three generations and covering nearly 80 years of retailing but going back as far as the 19th century. <br>With drama worthy of the popular TV drama <i>Succession</i>, a real-life Irish family drama shows the children of a dominant founder argue as to who should run the supermarket empire after his death and take the money from it, and how they dealt or not, with addictions and ill health, including alcoholism.<br><br><b>This is the story of excess, success and failure.</b></p>

The principal bus operator on the Isle of Wight is Southern Vectis, the name a nod to the Romans who once inhabited the island. In more recent times, from the reign of Queen Victoria, the popularity of the island increased – as has the provision for transport. Dr Beeching’s axe saw the once extensive rail network on the island reduced to just 9 miles of mainline track after 1966. This remains the same today with Island Line serving eight stations between Ryde Pier and Shanklin. This presented bus and coach companies with the opportunity to expand their operations to fill the gaps. Matt Cooper explores these operations on the island from the late 1990s before venturing across the Solent to the mainland to look at bus and coach operators running along the central South Coast. Loosely covering the area between Dorset and Sussex, the operators within it are as varied as the vehicle types to be seen. Both the ‘tourist trail’ and the routes travelled regularly by local residents are documented here.With a superb array of images, this book will be of interest to South Coast bus enthusiasts and will hopefully inspire visits to this beautiful part of the country.

During the 1990s and 2000s the bus and coach scene across the Midlands evolved at a much greater rate than that of the preceding decades. From 1986 the subsidiaries of the National Bus Company were privatised along with several municipally owned companies across the region, the largest of which was the bus operations of West Midlands PTE. Independent companies came to try their hand by setting up new routes or networks and were joined by some established coach operators wishing to exploit new opportunities.This book looks at numerous coaching operations as they criss-cross this centrally located region, with established National Express services being joined by new ventures such as Stagecoach-owned Megabus. The region largely covers the area once served by Midland Red, with many operators, bus types and liveries to be seen, along with changing road layouts, bus stations and transport infrastructure. During this period tram systems returned to both Nottingham and Birmingham with bus services altered and adapted. Through a wealth of fascinating images and informative captions, Matt Cooper documents the transition from the post-privatisation era to the modern day.