A VINTAGE car enthusiast whose passion for the vehicles led him to the big screen has written a book about his colourful career.

David Royle, from Gainford, County Durham, whose vintage vehicle restoration business – Royle – restored more than 900 cars during its 40- years of trading, spent threeand- a-half years writing the 760-page book, called From Vintage to Classic to Amphibian.

Mr Royle describes it as “three books in one”, with the first part telling his life story before detailing the development of the vintage cars business and the story behind the company’s work on developing ground-breaking highspeed amphibious vehicles during the Nineties.

As word spread about the work of Royle, which was based in old school buildings at Staindrop, near Barnard Castle, the company began to attract high-profile clientele, including Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman, Kenneth Moore and Bill Maynard.

It was Mr Royle’s association with such senior figures of the entertainment world that led to the MGM film company inviting him to drive cars in some of their films during the mid-Seventies.

He took the wheel in All Things Bright and Beautiful and in Agatha.

Mr Royle, now 72, said: “When I left school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. At 30, I thought ‘life is too short, lets do something I enjoy’.

“I had been restoring and building boats and cars since I was a teenager. It was just me on my own at first, then the market for old cars developed.

Interest and demand increased and I was able to develop a good team of men.

“We got a very good national and international reputation.

It was marvellous, interesting work and we met some wonderful customers from all over the country and abroad.”

The restoration company folded in 2009 due to financial difficulties caused by a bad debt, despite winning a High Court case in London over unpaid bills.

Since retiring, Mr Royle has concentrated on producing the book, which also contains more than 2,000 pictures spread across 300 pages, dozens of newspaper cuttings and letters. The book, which costs £39.99, is on sale at the Guru Boutique, in Darlington, and online at theroylebook.com