BOOKS SUPPORTED IN 2023
Three new titles
One of the most important functions of the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is to provide assistance — financial and/or advisory — in publishing automotive books that might otherwise never see light of day. Three such books were published in 2023.
Goldie: The amazing story of Alfred Goldie Gardner, the world’s most successful speed-record driver by John Mayhead is the first book from National Motor Museum Publishing, priced at £20. It contains previously unseen photographs and new information from various archives and interviews, and puts new perspective on the life of this enigmatic hero, including his secret wartime missions and illicit affairs. Archive material in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, including letters and press cuttings, was a vital source in the author’s research.
Vintage Sunbeams: The new generation 1921–26 by Don Shapland (with Bruce Dowell) has been self-published by the author and is available direct from him (don_bristol@yahoo.com or 07706 506657) at £20 plus carriage. The book fills a gap in the published history of Sunbeam by describing the company’s post-WWI range of 14HP and sister models. The success of this family of modern overhead-valve cars, derived from a Talbot design after Sunbeam’s merger with that Anglo-French concern, not only ensured Sunbeam’s immediate survival but laid the foundations for the more glamorous models that followed.
Cultra: Motoring with panache by Paul Robinson is published by the author and is available from his website (https://robinson-books.ueniweb.com) priced at £10 plus carriage. Probably the shortest book the Trust has supported at only 54 pages, it records an intriguing aspect of early motoring history by describing the ‘Motor Meets’ and accompanying hillclimbs organised in the period 1905–11 by the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, which numbered early automobile owners among its members.
PRAISE FOR THE TRUST’S SELF-PUBLISHING WORKSHOP
British Motor Museum, Gaydon, 30 September
Over the past few years the Trust has seen an increasing number of authors turning to self-publishing, some because trade publishers turned their books down and others who simply wanted to retain control of their projects, potentially take a profit that can be higher than publishers’ standard royalties, and hopefully enjoy the adventure. So the Trust felt the time was right to hold a Self-Publishing Workshop.
Judging by the many comments received from those attending, this was a thoroughly worthwhile event. Seven speakers covered the whole process of book production from concept to sales and distribution and a round-table session with three successful self-publishers provided hints and cautions from real-life experience. Four printers specialising in high-quality books with short print runs were present to provide further explanation.
Apart from the information and practical advice that was provided, many of the attendees clearly relished the opportunity to meet and talk. As well as aspiring or intending authors, the audience included published authors, editors, designers and photographers – all with an interest in some aspect of motoring history.
Steve Cropley, long-time Editor-in-Chief of Autocar, gave the keynote speech and afterwards wrote about the event in his ‘My Week In Cars’ column in the magazine. Here is what he said: “A thoroughly absorbing all-day event at Gaydon by the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust. This charity, chaired by former Autocar Editor Ray Hutton, is dedicated to helping enthusiasts self-publish books that widen the boundaries of motoring history. We heard from people who have already had their work published, aspirants with good ideas, professional page designers, and people who know how to enhance a book’s chances with spreadsheets and business plans. It could have been a long day, but the time fairly flashed by.”
SELF-PUBLISHING GUIDE
CPI Print, one of the exhibitors at the Self-Publishing Workshop, has produced a useful little handbook that summarises all the factors involved in self-publishing and includes samples of different paper types and weights.
The booklet is available free of charge from CPI’s IPA (Independent Publishers & Authors) team: e-mail Richard Hinchliffe at rhinchliffe@cpi-print.co.uk.
THE SEASON OF BOOK AWARDS
Royal Automobile Club and Society of Automotive Historians in Britain
It is awards season in the book world and for motoring enthusiasts the most important is the Royal Automobile Club’s Motoring Book of the Year. Publishers submitted 56 books for consideration by the judging panel chaired by author, publisher and motor sport commentator Simon Taylor. As in previous years, the entries were divided by price (above and below £50) in two categories: Motoring and Motorsport.
The overall Motoring Book of the Year was Driven to Crime by Crispian Besley (Evro Publishing, £40), an unusual book that investigates all manner of wrongdoing in motor sport and that judge Christian Whitehead (of Blackwell’s bookshop) described thus: ‘We Brits love a good true crime story and this book was very hard to put down.’
The Book of the Year is set apart from the category winners, which were:
Motoring (below £50): Max Hoffman: Million Dollar Middleman by Myles Kornblatt (Veloce Publishing, £30). This explores the life and times of the man who brought European sports car to America.
Motoring (no price limit): Kim: A Biography of MG Founder Cecil Kimber by Jon Pressnell (Dalton Watson Fine Books, £115) Another thorough piece of research by Pressnell, a noted historian who has won three years in a row.
Motorsport (below £50): Speed Queens: A secret history of women in motorsport by Rachel Harris-Gardiner (Pen & Sword Books, £22). Coverage goes back to the earliest days of motoring and the often-ignored achievements of female racers.
Motorsport (no price limit): Bentley Speed 8: The Comprehensive Story of Bentley’s Last Le Mans Winner (Sportfahrer Verlag, £225). A sumptuous book recording the return of Bentley to the 24 Hours and its 2003 win.
The Graham Robson Award for the Best Debut Author went to Andy Saunders for Andy Saunders, The Automotive Alchemist (Dalton Watson Fine Books, £90). This is a remarkable autobiography of a man who runs an MoT centre and service station and became Britain’s premier custom car builder.
As pictured, another highlight of the evening at the Royal Automobile Club was the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Chairman Ben Cussons (left) to world-renowned automotive author and historian Karl Ludvigsen (right). Since his first MG Guide in 1958, Karl has produced more than 60 books including definitive works on Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. He was for some years a Trustee of the MSMT and the Trust gave modest support to his magnum opus Reid Railton: Man of Speed published in 2018. Accepting the award, Karl, who will be 90 next year, revealed that his next book will be a three-volume technical history of supercharging and turbocharging entitled Power Unleashed. Fifteen years in preparation, it will be launched in 2024 by Evro Publishing.
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The various Book of the Year awards started in October with the Michael Sedgwick Award presented by the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain (SAHB). The MSMT is pleased to sponsor this award in memory of its namesake but is not involved in the judging process. This year the winner was Life on the Wilds Side: My Half Century Plus as a Professional Racing Driver by Mike Wilds with Geoff Thomas (Douglas Loveridge Publications, £45). It is an enjoyable canter through Wilds’ career that progressed from club racing to Formula 1 and World Championship endurance racing and continues to this day driving a wide variety of historic racing cars.
On 15 November, the Historic Motoring Awards, presented by Octane, included a ‘Publication of the Year’ amongst 21 categories. The winner was A Quiet Greatness: Japan’s Most Astonishing Automobiles, a high-quality, four-volume production by Mark R. Brinker and Myron T. Vernis, published in the United States and available in the UK at £324.
Coming up soon is a long-established and prestigious award. On 7 December, the Guild of Motoring Writers will reveal its Suzuki Award for the Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy, which goes to the person judged to have made the year’s greatest contribution to recording the history of motoring or motorcycling in a book.
OUR LONGEST-SERVING TRUSTEE RETIRES
Farewell Michael Ware
The Trust celebrated its 40th anniversary in the summer with a lunch kindly hosted by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu at Palace House. It was a fitting moment for Michael Ware, a past Chairman of the Trust and a Trustee throughout those 40 years, to announce that he was standing down as a Trustee, a milestone that Lord Montagu marked by presenting Michael with a celebratory plaque, as pictured.
When he started working at the Montagu Motor Museum (as it was then called) as Photographic Librarian in 1963, Michael soon got to know Michael Sedgwick, Curator of the Museum. When Sedgwick left that post in 1966 in order to concentrate on his research and writing, Michael took over and remained Curator until his retirement in 2001. Among his many distinctions, he founded the world-famous Beaulieu Autojumble.
When the Trust was inaugurated in 1983 following Sedgwick’s death, it was appropriate that Michael became one of the founding Trustees. Fittingly, it was at the 100th meeting of the Trust, during its 40th anniversary year, that he told his fellow Trustees the time had finally come to vacate his seat. We wish him well and will miss his trenchant contributions to our deliberations.
Michael remains active at the keyboard, writing for a variety of magazines, not least his monthly ‘Lost and Found’ column in Classic & Sports Car.
MY FAVOURITE BOOK
Trustee Paul Skilleter explains his choice – the first in an occasional series
My favourite motoring book has to be the one that most influenced my life. It is Jaguar: A Biography by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, researched by (and actually largely written by) none other than Michael Sedgwick.
Ordered in 1962 by mail order, I awaited the book with unparalleled anticipation. It promised to reveal so much about the marque I’d become fascinated with – which was thanks to riding in a big, bad, black Mark V Jaguar owned by tutor Nick Gossip at Bournemouth College of Art, where I was studying photography. Four or five of us students would pile into this somewhat ‘used’ old Jaguar for trips to London for City & Guilds exams, and the thrill of returning to Bournemouth on dark, near-deserted roads at 90–95mph for mile after mile hooked me on Jaguar forever.
Naturally I then wanted to learn everything I could about Jaguar and in those pre-internet days this meant books – and Lord Montagu’s was the first, and best, in-depth history of Jaguar. When I read it, I never dreamed that one day I would meet the people and cars it chronicled, and even commission articles from Sedgwick himself, let alone serve as a Trustee of an organisation named in memory of him. A funny old world...
By 1966 I had joined Motor magazine and bought an XK 140 drophead. By the early 1970s, with Jaguar: A Biography always by my side, I was editing the Jaguar Drivers’ Club magazine, which led to my first book (on Jaguar!) and a career that evolved into magazine publishing. But Lord Montagu’s book continued to be a constant influence and Sedgwick’s research remains exemplary even today. Recently I managed to acquire his very own copy, inscribed to him by Lord Montagu.
The accompanying photo, taken just a few days ago, shows me visiting my Jaguar-owning tutor, complete with the book – one of my most treasured possessions.
WHAT IS THE MICHAEL SEDGWICK MEMORIAL TRUST?
The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is a charity, not a membership organisation, run by volunteer Trustees who between them have huge experience of writing and publishing books. The Trust exists to encourage new and original research into any aspect of motoring history and to offer financial and other assistance to authors and publishers.
The Trust wishes to see research into motoring history reach the public domain, through publication as books, other printed media or on the internet. The Trust gives advice to would-be authors and tries to ‘connect’ authors and publishers. The Trust believes that even books with very limited sales potential should be published if the subject matter is worthy and the research is new and comprehensive.
In cases where a publisher or author believes that a subject merits publication but is unlikely to be a viable commercial proposition, the Trust can often offer some financial help to bridge the gap or enable an author to self-publish.
Where research is of a very specialist nature and not commercially viable, the Trust may offer funding to assist with research provided that copies of resulting texts are lodged in selected specialist libraries, County Record Offices and possibly published on the internet.
michaelsedgwicktrust.co.uk
