A novel high power factor drive of a single-phase switched reluctance motor (SRM) is researched. It achieves sinusoidal and near unity power factor input currents. The proposed SRM drive has one additional active switches. And a single-stage approach has a simple structure and low cost. A prototype to drive an SRM equipping a suitable encoder is designed to evaluate the proposed topology. The characteristics and validity of the proposed circuit is discussed with some simulations and experimental results.