Christopher Awdry wrote his first book in 1983, and 13 further books followed between 1984 and 1996. No books were published between 1996 and 2007; book 40: "New Little Engine", and the original books from "The Railway Series" went out-of-print. This was a source of friction between the Awdry family and the publishers. However, in February 2007, unofficial reports from the publishers, Egmont, suggested that there were plans to put the whole series back into print, in the original format, and that a new Christopher Awdry book (called "Thomas and Victoria") was expected to be published later in 2007. This book, number 41 in the series, was published in September 2007, being the first "Railway Series" book to be published in 11 years. Number 42 in the series, called "Thomas and his Friends", was published in June 2011.