Description

This is an eye-witness account of triumph and tragedy in the motoring world. It gives us glimpses of racing backstage in a large motor works, takes us beach-at Southport, hill-climbing at Shelsey, driving a Bentley at Brooklands and rallying in the Lake District.

We see the demise of two famous marques of the motoring world, reminisce over the passing of the ‘string and copper wire’ era and the dilettante drivers, see the arrival of the clinical age of motor-racing and of the ‘boy-racer’ with his ‘go-faster’ tape. And we learn the story of the motor-car’s evolution to its present standard, and along with it the evolution of the motor-trader.

Having an advantage denied to many of growing up among cars and car people, Arthur Knowles was able to watch, rub shoulders with, and talk to many of the greats of the motor-racing and record-breaking world. He thus has a rich source of memories to draw upon, which he brings vividly to life, sometimes pungently; but always with good humour.

The setting for most of his stories is the English Lake District, where as a youth he rallied with cars of an earlier day; where he saw Segrave and Campbell die; and where he now watches the young people of today with their Coopers and ‘Spridgets’, and hopes they derive as much fun from them as he did from his Riley ‘Monaco’ and Austin ‘Swallow’.

Arthur Knowles is a well-known journalist and motor-enthusiast. Readers will recall his book ‘With Campbell at Coniston’ and the biography he wrote with Donald’s mother, Lady Campbell, Donald Campbell, C.B.E.

Hardback in very good condition with clean dustcover now protected by clear cover.