John Haynes wrote and published his first book, on building an Austin 7 Special, whilst he was still at school in 1956. He wrote two more 'Special' builders' manuals while doing his National Service in the RAF. The first 'proper' Haynes Manual, for the Austin Healey Sprite, was written in Aden (another RAF posting) and based on the stripdown and rebuild of a project vehicle with extensive use of photographs - a practice that has not changed to this day.

Since Haynes Publishing was founded in 1960, tens of millions of Haynes Manuals have sold throughout the world, over 1 million in the UK last year alone. There are around 300 UK car manuals in print at present with 130 plus UK motorcycle manual titles - not to mention equivalent ranges in the USA, France and Sweden. Actually writing a car manual takes 20 to 30 man-weeks. Authors work in pairs, which shortens the origination time and avoids them going crazy in the middle of long projects. We buy a car at the beginning of the project and sell it at the end - either to staff or on the open market. The workshop phase lasts approximately 4 weeks, although we usually keep the car until the manual is about to print in case of last-minute queries. From the start of a project to the publication of the manual usually takes between three and six months. Motorcycle manuals take about two-thirds as long.

We have two editorial facilities; one in Somerset, England and one in the USA (near Los Angeles). The UK office produces manuals in English, French and Swedish while the US office produces manuals in American English, American Spanish and Australian English. We sell directly in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Sweden and Australia. So far, Manuals have been published in a total of 15 languages - English, French, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, German, Czech, Finnish, Polish, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Greek, Danish, Spanish and Russian.

Alongside our world famous car and motorcycle manuals, Haynes also publish a huge variety of books on many other motoring, transport, family and DIY related areas including; restoration, motor sport and maritime subjects, aviation, farm tractors, commercial vehicles, motorcycling, cycling, caravanning, camping, home decorating & DIY, health matters and American cars.

Quite apart from a long-standing association with MBI Publishing Company of the USA, we also represent and distribute selected items from the product ranges of Autosport Magazine (books), Bay View Books, David Bull Publishing, Duke Marketing Limited ("Powersport" DVDs) and The Stationery Office ("The Official Driving Series" books and videos only).

(taken from the Haynes Website: www.haynes.co.uk)