At the RAC Motoring Book of the Year Awards, in early November, John Mayhead's biography of Goldie Gardner won the award for the Best Motorsport Book with a cover price less than £50. The book was published by the National Motor Museum (NMM) as the first in a new series of publications and was financially supported by the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust (MSMT).
The awards were presented on the evening of 30th October at the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall, where the author received his award in person. Also present was Patrick Collins, Research and Enquiries Manager at the National Museum and MSMT Trustee, who assisted John Mayhead with the research for the book, as a great deal of relevant information was held at the NMM.
Summarising the book at the presentation, Chairman of the Judges Simon Taylor said: “Injured during the First World War, Goldie Gardner overcame his disability to become probably the world’s most prolific speed record holder. The author has undertaken much new research and found unseen photographs to tell a story that visits the jungles of Ceylon and the trenches of the Somme to help explain an obsessed man’s determination to prove himself.”
One of the six-strong judging panel, Gordon Cruickshank, gave this verdict about the book: “This is a searching and long-overdue portrait of the injured MG speed king whose relentless record-braking has unfairly faded from history.”
After collecting his award from Neil Fletcher, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club’s Motoring Committee, John Mayhead, a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, explained how Goldie Gardner’s wartime heroism had been one aspect of the man that he had been particularly keen to explore when researching the biography.
“I found Goldie completely by accident,” said Mayhead. “I had been writing about the Jabbeke speed trials and learned about this chap who was far too big to fit in his car, severely injured, yet he was still doing these extraordinary speeds in an extraordinary car all the way into his 50s.
“The book was a very personal trip. I got to know Goldie’s daughter, Rosalind, very well indeed, and she had never previously spoken to anybody about her father. The 35 boxes of archive records at the National Motor Museum were invaluable and Patrick Collins escorted me through all this material. I also spent time with the family of Rich Jackson, his competition engineer. Yes, I did get slightly obsessed with the whole Goldie thing!”
Subsequently in December, the book has won the Suzuki Award for Book of the Year at the 2024 awards at The Guild of Motoring Writers. These awards also took place at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall where the award was presented to John Mayhead by Alun Parry, Head of Press and PR for Suzuki Cars UK.
