"The Chequered Year"

By Ted Simon. 280 pp. 8 3/4 in. x 5 1/2 in. (Cassell & Co. Ltd., 35, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4SJ. £2.85)

This is the intimate story of a season of Grand Prix racing, as seen by a Fleet Street-type journalist who spent all his time with the team.

The result is a readable account of what went on, with pen pictures of the drivers’ attitudes, the technicalities of the cars and so on, in the popular idiom.

Each race venue gets a chapter to itself—Kyalami, Brands Hatch, Madrid, Silverstone, Monte Carlo, Belgium, Holland, France, Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, St. Jovite, Watkins Glen and Mexico being some of the chapter headings. There are some excellent pictures of the celebrities, mostly in off-duty situations.

The whole story has been woven around March Engineering’s efforts in their first year and the early chapters concerning the formation of the company are the high spot of the book.

The disappointment is that the book is out of date, covering as it does the 1970 season.—W.B.