Racing Round the Island

“Racing Round the Island” by Bob Holiday 212 pp. 8 3/4 in. 5 1/2 in. (David & Charles, Newton Abbot, Devon. £3.95.)

At first sight this book about racing round the loM seems to be rather unnecessary, as repeating information found in other books, such as Lord Montagu’s Gordon Bennett history, the various books on the TT car and motorcycle races, etc. Yet it is good to have all this intense activity So nicely concentrated, by a writer who knows his subject, especially on the motorcycle side, as a former staffman on Motor Cycling and for ten years editor, with Geoff Davidson, of the TT Special newspaper. His book covers the famous TT races, the car races, even cycle racing, over the various loM courses, which are usefully sorted out. Those who used to thrill to those between-the-wars motorcycle TTs, which got such extensive pre-race coverage in the motorcycle weeklies that excitement was kept at fever pitch and the ordinary motorcyclist found himself riding that much faster, should be glad to have the outcome and highlights of these contests concisely described, and to be reminded of those early car TT’s on the wet and misty Island, followed by the later Mannin Moar and Mannin Beg events, etc., etc.

Holiday has compressed his tale of Manx speed into a quite small but readable book; that it Carries fresh material was evident to me when I read for the first time that it was a Buick taxi that Kaye Don collided with, on that unhappy fatal accident in the MG.—W.B.