Through owning and running a bookshop, and with my personal interest in transport, I got to know Ian Allan's Sales Manager on the book side quite well: being a smallish publisher keen on containing costs Nigel was their their sole sales rep on the road too. Like many, he always enjoyed his trips to the most westerly bookshop in England (beats up and down the motorway to Manchester!) and, for a brief period, I even achieved the exhorted status of them including my shop's name in their bus magazine advertising as an 'approved' agent, being by far the smallest shop in it. Alas, I overreached myself, ordered too much stock and had to have that status withdrawn. Nevertheless, I continued the relationship and was present at their stall at the London Book Fair when Ian Allan Publishing announced their merger with Midland Counties Publishers, spinning it as a 'takeover' but, to my eyes, it was always a rescue of IAP by MC, whose name was adopted. This was a while before the mags were sold to Key Publishing, but was a sign of where the industry was heading in the the fledgling days of the internet. I do recollect Nigel saying to me once when Ian Allan himself was still alive and taking a paternal interest in the business 'as far as Ian's concerned, the bookshop at Waterloo would always be the last thing he'd give up' and he'd let it lose money year after year if necessary. So, RIP not only to the shop but, a few years after his death, to Ian Allan himself: I feel without his vision with the magazines and fleetbooks my difficult early cxhildhood would have been so much worse.Apologies for the excess of emotion, but it's for real...