About the author

Arthur Nutbey was born in 1946 in Zeeland, the Netherlands, as the eldest son of a vicar. From an early age he has had a passion for tractors. At the age of 12 he collected brochures from all over the world. After school, national military service and business college, he emigrated to South Africa. After a three year stay he returned to Holland overland in a VW combi.

After 8 years with an Amsterdam based tobacco company, he joined Vicon, a Dutch manufacturer of agricultural machinery. At Vicon and subsequent parent companies he served in different PR and marketing capacities, retiring after 25 years in 2007.

As a long time fan of Zetor tractors (he owns two oldtimer models), in 2008 Arthur started work on a book about Zetor. In 2009 he published “Zetor Tractors”, later translated into 4 other languages and revised and updated in 2015. In 2010, at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his former employer, he wrote and published his second book, “Vicon, 100 Years of Agricultural Mechanisation”.

Fascinated by the history of Zetor and Czechoslovak industrial development in the past century, he published his latest book in October 2015. “Zbrojovka Brno, From Firearms to Tractors” is an illustrated history of one the world’s most successful arms manufacturers between the two World Wars.

Arthur lives in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, is married and has two sons. His hobbies are industrial and military history, working in his tractor shed and playing (field) hockey and squash.