- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; First Edition edition (13 Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297607359
- ISBN-13: 978-0297607359
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 789,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Back Fire is a posthumous collection of Clark's columns for the magazine Classic Cars and other journals along with a few extracts from the infamous diaries.
If Mr Toad hadn't predated Alan Clark by some 21 years--The Wind in the Willows was published in 1908 and Clark born in 1929--you could make a good case for Clark's having been the model for Kenneth Grahame's daredevil, outrageous but loveable rogue. Conservative MP, historian, man about town, notorious womaniser--and at the same time fiercely loyal husband and father--Clark, who died in 1999, was the son of Lord (Kenneth) Clark, the art historian and broadcaster. He bought his first car, a six-and-a-half litre vintage Bentley, while he was still at Eton and only 17--it was typical of the stylish flamboyance he soon made his trademark.
Many a Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Buick and Chevrolet followed. So did old Citroens, a VW Beetle and latterly a beloved and "totally reliable" Discovery. He was a collector, par excellence, who was addicted to the buying and selling of cars all his adult life. Every garage and enclosed space at Saltwood Castle, the family home in Kent, remains full of Clark's cars. Clark's son James writes in Back Fire that "Outside the family, I truly believe, cars were my father's greatest love". But he didn't approve of over-enthusiastic restoration. When he drove his 1920 Silver Ghost, of which there is a photograph in Back Fire on the 1993 Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Alpine Commemorative Run, a fellow competitor remarked, to Clark's amusement, that "if he can't afford to maintain his car properly he shouldn't be allowed on the event".
Whatever else Clark was or wasn't he was never dull and he was certainly a writer. "What do we want a classic car for? Showing off, of course. Nothing wrong with that; they are more idiosyncratic than beach jewellery." The prose hums along as expertly as the cars. --Susan Elkin
Product Description
Alan Clark was passionate about cars from an early age. He bought his first car - a secondhand 6.5 litre Bentley - while still a schoolboy at Eton and without a driving licence. By the time he was 24 he had been banned from driving three times, not only for speeding but in one instance for driving an open Buick Roadster with a girl on his lap. He dealt in 'classic' and vintage cars and soon built up an impressive stable of his own. One of his first published pieces of journalism appeared in the US magazine, Road and Track, for which he was briefly UK correspondent. 'Back Fire', the title of a column he wrote in Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine, ran for three years until his death in September 1999. Here Robert Coucher, former editor of the magazine, has collected Clark's motoring writings - among them previously untranscribed diary entries and some early memoirs, including driving his own R-R Silver Ghost in two Alpine rallies. He also contributes a revealing introduction. Alan Clark's elder son, James Clark - who has inherited his father's motoring enthusiasms - provides a Prologue; Alan Clark's widow, Jane writes a moving Afterword.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Practically my earliest memory of childhood is standing anxiously (I would have been about five or six years old) on the quayside at Inverewe, having disembarked from one of the MacBrayne steamers, and seeing the two Rolls-Royces that my grandfather had sent to meet us - one for the passengers and one for the luggage - coming along on the far side of the loch, raising dust clouds on the unmade highland roads. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Practically my earliest memory of childhood is standing anxiously (I would have been about five or six years old) on the quayside at Inverewe, having disembarked from one of the MacBrayne steamers, and seeing the two Rolls-Royces that my grandfather had sent to meet us - one for the passengers and one for the luggage - coming along on the far side of the loch, raising dust clouds on the unmade highland roads. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read AC's diaries, one knows what to expect. Utterly honest and open, but playing to the gallery. But this isn't a book for the non enthusiast really, heaven for the Clark afficionado who loves old cars but a bit too specialist for others. Being of the first category, I read it in two sittings and enjoyed it immensely.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Back Fire provoked very mixed feelings, which is a shame. Clark's own columns and diary snippets are full of his enthusiasm for cars - proper cars that is - and motoring in general, and if you're like-minded they're a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, like many books of newspaper and magazine writings it's got an air of being cobbled together. The columns are very much a product of their various times - but there's rarely an indication of when and where they were first published. Their brief intros give only a bland context and some are marred by sloppy editing.
If you're a Clark completist it's essential; if you love cars it's an entertaining read. But ultimately most of these writings were intended to be ephemeral and might be better read in dusty back issues of the magazines they first appeared in. Having read Back Fire in an afternoon I doubt I'll do more than dip into it again.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
