Back to the Drawing Board

Back to the Drawing Board is Donald Ainley's story, beginning with life in a small Yorkshire village during the war. Donald's father had left home and vanished when Donald was four years old, so Donald and his mother were hard up and always on the move.

When Donald left school he began to train as a draughtsman before National Service intervened and he travelled to Libya, Malta, Cyprus, Iraq, Egypt and Sudan in the RAF.

Back in England Donald began what should have been a long, happy career with Asquiths, the machine tool manufacturer, as a trouble-shooter. He was soon saving the company a small fortune, but then bad management decisions and bitter personality clashes all but destroyed the team with whom Donald had worked for years.

Back to the Drawing Board conjures up a world that is no more - a world of drawing offices where female ‚Äútracers‚Äù laboriously copied pencil drawings in black ink on to transparent linen, with not a computer in sight, and in which the skills of the foundry and machine shop were highly valued and well rewarded. All those who remember that world with fondness will revel in this detailed and fascinating autobiography.