A very early designer of axial engines was Charles Benjamin Redrup, the engineer and inventor, who was born in Newport, South Wales in 1878. Raised in Barry, he first designed and manufactured theBarry motor cycle with an unusual rotary supercharged engine, and went on to design a range of engines, including a wobble-plate motorcycle engine. Charles Redrup's name appeared fleetingly in many reference works but no full description of his extensive and innovative work had been previously written. This omission has been rectified by the publication of his life story, The knife and fork man, by William Fairney (Diesel Publishing). The enlarged Second Edition has 40 more pages, 33 colour plates, over 200 black and white pictures, and is now with an Index. Since the First Edition was published three more Redrup engines have surfaced and there is now an exhibition of several of his engines in the Aerospace Section of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry