The British Grand Prix is the oldest event on the World Championship calendar and the feud over its future, now secured, went on for more than ten years. This is the full story, told from the inside, of the business and personal battles between the British Racing Drivers Club, the organizers of the race, and Bernie Ecclestone, Formula 1's commercial rights holder. It is a story that has it all, combining high-octane personal jealousies (Sir Jackie Stewart and Bernie Ecclestone) and high finance told by a journalist with access to all the characters involved, and who himself served for two years as a BRDC director at the height of this drama.
The world's major car makers decided in February to seize the reins of Formula 1 from its controllers, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley. This resulted in an an epic struggle and the focus of interest for many years. There is no one better qualified than Alan Henry to reveal how Ecclestone and Mosley did it: how they bent the world's largest corporations to their will and made personal fortunes along the way. Formula 1 has the biggest global audience of any spectator sport. It is by far the best read sub-sector of the motor titles. There is an appetite for this book in all the countries where Formula 1 races are held, and all the countries which Formula 1 teams represent.
In The Making of Modern Britain, Andrew Marr paints a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century as the country recovered from the grand wreckage of the British Empire. Between the death of Queen Victoria and the end of the Second World War, the nation was shaken by war and peace. The two wars were the worst we had ever known and the episodes of peace among the most turbulent and surprising. As the political forum moved from Edwardian smoking rooms to an increasingly democratic Westminster, the people of Britain experimented with extreme ideas as they struggled to answer the question ‘How should we live?’ Socialism? Fascism? Feminism? Meanwhile, fads such as eugenics, vegetarianism and nudism were gripping the nation, while the popularity of the music hall soared. It was also a time that witnessed the birth of the media as we know it today and the beginnings of the welfare state. Beyond trenches, flappers and Spitfires, this is a story of strange cults and economic madness, of revolutionaries and heroic inventors, sexual experiments and raucous stage heroines. From organic food to drugs, nightclubs and celebrities to package holidays, crooked bankers to sleazy politicians, the echoes of today's Britain ring from almost every page.
The international financial value of Grand Prix racing has grown substantially in recent years. This book will focus upon the massive size, value, importance and impact of the industry. It will also investigate the dominance of UK based Research and Development and design and the development of team strategy and tactics. The authors have based their analysis upon very up-to-date research involving interviews with key individuals at the highest level and visibility within the industry and focus upon the key management themes of teamworking, leadership, strategy and innovation.
The former wartime airfield at Silverstone is Britain’s most important motor racing circuit and is best known as the home of the British Grand Prix, which was first staged there in 1948. This magnificent book tells Silverstone’s entire history, covering the great races, influential characters and unforgettable events, as well as the evolution of the circuit itself. The book is profusely illustrated, including plenty of rare photographs that have not been published before. Produced with the full assistance of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) and Silverstone Circuits, this is the last word on the history of the much-loved ‘home of British motor racing’.
'Captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes' Sunday Times 'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' Mark Knopfler SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the death of Stirling Moss on 12 April 2020 at the age of 90 made headlines, almost 60 years after he retired from Formula One. In The Boy, Richard Williams assesses what made him such an iconic figure. Told in 60 brief chapters, Williams builds a fascinating and revealing portrait of a driver who was a hero to millions. As the long years of war began to recede, sport in Britain was getting moving again and there was a need for heroes. Denis Compton and Stanley Matthews were in their pomp, playing to packed houses. But Stirling Moss was a fresh face, just 17 years old when he first emerged in 1947. Too young to have served and been scarred by the war, he was soon revealed to possess not only an unearthly degree of skill but the qualities of courage and resolution noted in the generation that fought in the air and on land and sea. Their youth had been stolen; his was new and unspoiled. The Boy explains how and why he came to occupy such a unique place in the esteem and the affections of the nation. Why him, rather than some of his contemporaries, such as Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, who shared a role in the rise of Britain as a power in international motor racing? Moss may never have been world champion, but he created a remarkable and enduring legacy, and Williams brilliantly shows just how he did it.
