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Review
"Mr Winter's pleasant narrative style soon draws you in..." --Best of British magazine
"...Winter is a good story-teller, writing with detail, wit and self deprecating humour, and this book is peppered with classic quotes that elevate the tale" --RealClassic magazine
"...an interesting and absorbing book, one that you will want to come back to after you've put it down" --Nacelle magazine of the Triumph Owners Motorcycle Club
"The writing style encourages one to keep reading, and the further I read the better it got."
--Centerstand magazine
"I couldn't put the book down, I must congratulate you on a fantastic read" --Editor Daimler And Lachester Owners' Club
"...Winter is a good story-teller, writing with detail, wit and self deprecating humour, and this book is peppered with classic quotes that elevate the tale" --RealClassic magazine
"...an interesting and absorbing book, one that you will want to come back to after you've put it down" --Nacelle magazine of the Triumph Owners Motorcycle Club
"The writing style encourages one to keep reading, and the further I read the better it got."
--Centerstand magazine
"I couldn't put the book down, I must congratulate you on a fantastic read" --Editor Daimler And Lachester Owners' Club
Product Description
When lawyer Nigel Winter takes a few days off to follow in the tyre-tracks of one of England's greatest engineers on his way from Land's End to John O'Groats, he finds far, far more than he expects. For Mr Turner designed the motorcycle that powered Marlon Brando to fame in The Wild One, and on which Steve McQueen tried to jump the wire in the Great Escape. As the author travels north you begin to feel the ghost of Mr Turner, and his larger than life personality, peering out of the pages. Behind him looking on, are the multitude of ordinary working people from the 1950s and 1960s, their fears and hopes, and the weird and wonderful class prejudices and management styles of the day. Along the road to John O'Groats, the author riding his modern Triumph and Mr Turner on his Triumph Terrier in 1953, we encounter the bizarre history of Triumph Motorcycles. Record breaking machines that sold around the world, whose entire work force locked out the management just so that they could continue to make motorcycles and prevent Triumph from being consigned to history. A history so completely off the wall that it simply has to be true. Travelling with Mr Turner draws the reader in to experience how life was lived in those post war decades of tumultuous change and Rock 'n' Roll, when the legend of Triumph encapsulated an entire generation in a world now nearly vanished into history, but still somehow wonderfully alive today. Contemplative, witty, often tongue-in-cheek, this is a fascinating personal perspective on the history of Triumph motorcycles seen through the eyes of two different social eras. Now entered for the Orwell Book Prize!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This summer, I met an American tourist who introduced me to this book whilst we were visiting legendary Triumph motorcycle designer Edward Turner's blue plaque at Turner's former home in 8 Philip Walk, Peckham, London SE15.
I immediately went to Foyles (oddly enough, founded by another Peckham old boy) to buy a copy and found it un-put-downable.
The author combines the detail of Edward Turner's publicity stunt of travelling from Lands End to John O' Groats on his smallest design, the newly introduced 150cc Triumph Terrier, with his own duplication of that trip albeit on board a modern 900cc Triumph Thunderbird. The author visits the hotels that Turner and his entourage stayed in as well as the roads and sights that Britain's greatest motorcycle designer must have taken in. Photographs at each stage of the Turner's trip introduce each chapter whilst the author's photos of his own modern recreation are within the body of each chapter.
Of particular interest are the author's own observations on British industry , especially the history of Triumph motorcycles and his commentary on the famous Meriden co-operative. Just after Turner passed away in 1973, the new owners of Triumph wanted to shut down Turner's legendary Meriden factory in the West Midlands. The Triumph workers blockaded them from doing so and eventually with a loan from then-Minister of Trade, Tony Benn, acquired the manufacturing and later marketing rights to Triumph itself, producing Turner's designs against all odds until the continuing recession of 1983.
There are some minor factual inaccuracies and this reviewer would have preferred the journey to have been done on a motorcycle designed by Turner (a 1983 TR65 Thunderbird perhaps ?) but these are small niggles in a book that is easily read but deserves a wide readership. It's more than a travel book, more than a motorcycle book and more than a history book. It really needs to be read by anyone interested in Britain and it's massive changes in recent social history.Excellent: buy it now !
I immediately went to Foyles (oddly enough, founded by another Peckham old boy) to buy a copy and found it un-put-downable.
The author combines the detail of Edward Turner's publicity stunt of travelling from Lands End to John O' Groats on his smallest design, the newly introduced 150cc Triumph Terrier, with his own duplication of that trip albeit on board a modern 900cc Triumph Thunderbird. The author visits the hotels that Turner and his entourage stayed in as well as the roads and sights that Britain's greatest motorcycle designer must have taken in. Photographs at each stage of the Turner's trip introduce each chapter whilst the author's photos of his own modern recreation are within the body of each chapter.
Of particular interest are the author's own observations on British industry , especially the history of Triumph motorcycles and his commentary on the famous Meriden co-operative. Just after Turner passed away in 1973, the new owners of Triumph wanted to shut down Turner's legendary Meriden factory in the West Midlands. The Triumph workers blockaded them from doing so and eventually with a loan from then-Minister of Trade, Tony Benn, acquired the manufacturing and later marketing rights to Triumph itself, producing Turner's designs against all odds until the continuing recession of 1983.
There are some minor factual inaccuracies and this reviewer would have preferred the journey to have been done on a motorcycle designed by Turner (a 1983 TR65 Thunderbird perhaps ?) but these are small niggles in a book that is easily read but deserves a wide readership. It's more than a travel book, more than a motorcycle book and more than a history book. It really needs to be read by anyone interested in Britain and it's massive changes in recent social history.Excellent: buy it now !
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nigel Winter could easily give up the day job, if being an author paid as much as being a lawyer. He's a great natural writer, with a lyrical and slightly lunatic way of looking at the world which suits perfectly the mad story of how men like Turner made Triumph the greatest motorcycle company in the world, how a group of idiots who didn't even like bikes managed to ruin it, and how a group of visionaries in the Turner mould are now making it great again.
There's some truly inspired writing, like the Stairway to Heaven sequence, the imagined meetings with the ghost of Turner and Turner's imagined sighting of Nigel's own modern Triumph.
Highly recommended.
There's some truly inspired writing, like the Stairway to Heaven sequence, the imagined meetings with the ghost of Turner and Turner's imagined sighting of Nigel's own modern Triumph.
Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this from Amazon after seeing the review in the Triumph Owners Motor Cycle Club magazine.
This is quite an interesting style of writing which mixes up the journey with some biography of Edward Turner, it includes loads of comments of social history (quite a lot of things I had no idea about) with the politics and history of the Meriden Co-operative including the faults and ego's of many of the main players.
I particularly like the occasions where 1953 gets mixed up wth the repeat journey, I found myself wanting the author to actually meet Mr Turner. This book isn't a local version of "Jupiters Travels" but after reading it I feel that I know and like the author (despite him being a Lawyer!!)
You don't have to like motorbikes to enjoy this book, but if you like mixtures of travel, history, social comments and some of the industrial politics, then you will probably get engrossed as I did.
Recommended.
This is quite an interesting style of writing which mixes up the journey with some biography of Edward Turner, it includes loads of comments of social history (quite a lot of things I had no idea about) with the politics and history of the Meriden Co-operative including the faults and ego's of many of the main players.
I particularly like the occasions where 1953 gets mixed up wth the repeat journey, I found myself wanting the author to actually meet Mr Turner. This book isn't a local version of "Jupiters Travels" but after reading it I feel that I know and like the author (despite him being a Lawyer!!)
You don't have to like motorbikes to enjoy this book, but if you like mixtures of travel, history, social comments and some of the industrial politics, then you will probably get engrossed as I did.
Recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hmm not for me i'm afraid
I really had high hopes for this book after all the positive reviews but i'm afraid for me it never lived up to my expectations . Read more
Published 1 month ago by Roger J. Markham
Turner's Triumph
For anyone remotely interested in the history of British motorcycles, this little book is a 'must read'. Read more
Published 2 months ago by I. A. Crichton
Travelling with Mr Turner
Full of inaccuracies and misconceptioins about E T, the British motorcycle industry of the time and indeed the ambience and ethos of the fifties and sixties. Read more
Published 5 months ago by SJM
Travelling with Mr Turner
A fascinating read, which describes the author's trip, following the path of Mr Turner from the Triumph company. Read more
Published 10 months ago by P. Hawkins
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