Triumph the red devil

By Brendan Lynch

ISBN 0-9513 668-1-5

Published by Portobello Publishing, £14.95

A few tome truths: never judge a book by its cover — or size and weight. This unprepossessing book is a fine example of pacy story-telling. In approximately 170 pages, Lynch puts Ireland’s 1903 Gordon Bennett Trophy in context, relates its feverish build-up, tells its story lap by lap and from each drivers’ viewpoint — and explains the race’s lasting legacy. That you can read it from cover to cover in one sitting is a strength, not a weakness. Lynch’s style is lively and engaging, his wealth of facts greasing the story along rather than seizing it up. This book’s compact nature means the photos are the poor relations (in size more than quality), a fact escalated by some iffy design. But, on the whole, it is well worth setting aside a (long) evening for. PF<.strong>