With a quarter of million cars a day crowding onto the M25, and millions more standing nose-to-tail on our A-roads, Britain is now officially Europe's largest car park. In Germany, it's illegal to drive on a motorway at less than 37mph, but over here it can be a struggle even to reach such a speed during daylight hours. Over-stressed, over-taxed, with petrol at well over a pound a litre and the morning and evening rush hours merging into one, UK motorists have become the slaves of the machine rather than its master. People, even so, are still keen to go places - according to "The Times", "The A-Z to of London" is the most shoplifted book in Britain - and so far at least there's not better way of doing it than by car. Written with the suffering millions in mind, "Blood, Sweat and Tyres" is the antidote. Casting a wry eye over the world of modern motoring, and highlighting some of its strangest and more bizarre aspects, it seeks to put the sheer awfulness of commuting into some kind of perspective. Or at least to give the victims - motorists, their passengers, friends and families - something funny to read and to reflect on whilst they join the queue. Find out: why the most successful Le Mans driver of all time wishes he could race a 90 year old lady; how it is we know Shakespeare wasn't a petrolhead; why the Fab Three bullied Ringo into selling his favourite French supercar; and, how big a forest your average football team would need to plant to offset the massive carbon footprint of all the gas-guzzlers in the players' car park.
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
This is the perfect present for car enthusiasts. --Daily Express
About the Author
Since firing up his first V12 Ferrari in 1984, author and journalist DAVID LONG has driven more than 2,000 different cars ranging from a nineteenth-century Renault around the streets of Paris to the latest hydrogen-powered BMW on a banked, high-speed oval. During that time he has appeared in The Times, Sunday Times, Sunday People and London's Evening Standard, on television and radio, and in the pages of countless magazines in the UK and overseas. As an award-winning ghostwriter and on his own account he is also the author of more than a dozen books, many of which are on motoring and motor racing. www.davidlong.info
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
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
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is not just a book packed full of funny, curious and downright astonishing facts about cars; this is an M&S book packed full of funny, curious... Well, not exactly, but you get the drift.
The author, David Long, who I am pleased to number among my friends, has been a top journalist, author and font of superior automotive anecdotes for, well, as long as I've known him (20 odd years). In a less charming and well educated man the ability to call up from memory funny stories about racing drivers, royalty, obscure caravanettes and curious road traffic laws in foreign lands would be deemed "geekish", if not downright scary. Now he's put it all in a book.*
This distillation has several advantages, not the least of which is that the book costs considerably less than lunch with the author (the only other way to access this information).
I'd say this book was especially useful in browsing situations; waiting on a train or bus, flying on a plane, in the smallest room in the house. It might even be worth keeping in the glove box of your car so that, when the inevitable Bank Holiday traffic jam ensnares you, you will be reminded of the lighter side of car culture.
There is, however, one danger I must warn you of. Once you start reading the book it is almost impossible to stop yourself from seeking the attention of the nearest available friend, family member or work colleague and sharing with them the astonishing fact Mr Long has lain before your eyes. For a while they will laugh with you, but eventually they will buy you a copy of Top Gear, thereby proving that they have not been listening at all.
*The dedication is Latin; Ego autem coacervavi omne quod inveni. This is a quote from The Historia Brittonum or History of the Britons, an early 9th century collection of historical materials. It translates, roughly, as, "I have made a heap of all that I have found." And he has.
The author, David Long, who I am pleased to number among my friends, has been a top journalist, author and font of superior automotive anecdotes for, well, as long as I've known him (20 odd years). In a less charming and well educated man the ability to call up from memory funny stories about racing drivers, royalty, obscure caravanettes and curious road traffic laws in foreign lands would be deemed "geekish", if not downright scary. Now he's put it all in a book.*
This distillation has several advantages, not the least of which is that the book costs considerably less than lunch with the author (the only other way to access this information).
I'd say this book was especially useful in browsing situations; waiting on a train or bus, flying on a plane, in the smallest room in the house. It might even be worth keeping in the glove box of your car so that, when the inevitable Bank Holiday traffic jam ensnares you, you will be reminded of the lighter side of car culture.
There is, however, one danger I must warn you of. Once you start reading the book it is almost impossible to stop yourself from seeking the attention of the nearest available friend, family member or work colleague and sharing with them the astonishing fact Mr Long has lain before your eyes. For a while they will laugh with you, but eventually they will buy you a copy of Top Gear, thereby proving that they have not been listening at all.
*The dedication is Latin; Ego autem coacervavi omne quod inveni. This is a quote from The Historia Brittonum or History of the Britons, an early 9th century collection of historical materials. It translates, roughly, as, "I have made a heap of all that I have found." And he has.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Reference > Transport > Automotive
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.
|
