ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB ANNOUNCES MOTORING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Royal Automobile Club has announced two brand new initiatives to raise the profile of motoring book publishing: the Royal Automobile Club Book of the Year Award and Motoring Literary Festival.

The Motoring Literary Festival will take place at the Royal Automobile Club’s historic Pall Mall clubhouse in central London – the birthplace of motoring enthusiasm in Britain – on the evening of Wednesday 29 October 2014.

The Motoring Book of the Year will be the climax of the evening, in front of Club members, invited guests, and a host of well-known automotive authors and publishing figures.

The event is one of several staged as part of the Club’s ‘London Motor Week’, which includes the free-to-attend Regent Street Motor Show and the Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

‘The Royal Automobile Club is passionate about motoring history and the written word,’ said Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Club’s Motoring Committee.

‘Our Library in Pall Mall contains one of the finest collections of motoring and motor racing books in the world. Our members value it enormously, and we intend to keep adding to it – even though the death of the printed book is frequently predicted.’

At the inaugural event, the Club will host a lively debate on the future for motoring book publishing and printed books in the digital era, with invited panellists including publishers and book retailing experts. Among the experts will be Tom Tivnan of The Bookseller, Mark Hughes of Evro Publishing, Philip Porter of Porter Press International and Rod Grainger of Veloce Publishing.

Another feature will be the chance for guests to ‘Meet a Car Book Legend’, and prolific author Graham Robson – who is believed to have written more car-related books in the English language than any other single author – will be talking about his work and taking questions from the audience.

The evening culminates in the announcement of the Royal Automobile Club’s 2014 Motoring Book of the Year. The judging process will include recommendations from Britain’s most experienced car book reviewers, including Mick Walsh of Classic & Sports Car, Gordon Cruickshank of Motor Sport, Keith Adams of Classic Car Weekly, Henry Willis of Auto Express, Henry Hope-Frost of Autosport and freelance writer and reviewer Richard Heseltine. The Club’s Motoring Committee, and its librarian, Trevor Dunmore, will be closely involved in the final decision. The award will be commemorated by a unique trophy presented to the winning author, along with the use of a specially created logo to promote the work.

‘We intend this unique award to be an important new accolade in motoring publishing,’ said Ben Cussons. ‘As the digital era reshapes traditional publishing, we continue to believe in the power of the written word and the importance – and appeal – of the published book. The Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year is a significant new ‘badge of honour’ for authors and publishers dedicated to excellence in the field, no matter what type of motoring subject matter is tackled.’

Source: Royal Automobile Club

GOODWOOD REVIVAL BRINGS STONEHENGE TO WEST SUSSEX!

Where else in the world can you see a full scale model of Stonehenge, the largest gathering of Jaguar D-types and Mods and Rockers duking it out on Brighton Pier without leaving the confines of a racing track? At the Goodwood Revival of course, which takes place from 12 – 14 September at the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

Keen to save motorists from the South East the journey to the West Country, the world famous Goodwood Revival Meeting continues its tradition of stunning displays and authentic set dressing with the most extreme example to date, in the shape of a full-scale Stonehenge installation at West Sussex’s home of motorsport.

Commissioned by Lord March to be larger than the original (for greater visibility as there will be more people at the Goodwood Revival in September [some 150,000] than were in the entire UK 5,000 years ago [population circa 100,000]), the installation will be in place exclusively for the Revival weekend in celebration of the pre-historic monument’s 99 years in safe hands, after it was bought at auction in 1915 by Cecil Chubb for £6,600 (some £500,000 in today’s money).

Some say it was bought to stop it being shipped to America, and it is suggested that the Goodwood version may be offered up for sale after the Revival to offer potential U.S. buyers another chance to take Stonehenge stateside!

A number of druids will attend to mark the occasion and will be invited to enact rituals and ceremonies at the site – though the rain dance is banned! Unlike the original, guests will be invited into the monument site, making it a must-visit UK ‘selfie’ destination this September.

Goodwood Revival takes place from 12-14 September at the Goodwood Motor Circuit, more information is available here.

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AUTHOR PROFILE No.14: TERRY O'NEIL

Terry O'Neil has written 4 books for Veloce, with another due to be published in 2015.



Born in the town of Ware, Hertfordshire, in the latter part of 1942, Terry O’Neil’s first memory was transport related – sitting in his pram in the back garden at his grandparents’ house in Buntingford, while his mother was working in a munitions factory helping with the war effort.

When Terry’s father returned home from duty in the Middle East,

the family moved to Coventry, his father’s home town. After attending a local grammar school, Terry took up employment at a tyre distributor before moving on to work in the general sales department of the Rootes Group, based at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry. Here he gained his first insight into the manufacture of cars, and had his first taste of public relations work: taking new cars for photographic shoots throughout the country, then working in the showroom at the Ryton factory, where he oversaw the factory visit programme for foreign guests.

After helping to conduct a dealer franchise review for the Rootes

Group, Terry moved to British Leyland, based at Longbridge, Birmingham, to help carry out a similar review for it, before being moved to Sussex to take up the position of sales area manager for the company.

A similar job soon saw Terry and his family move back to the Midlands,

to Stourbridge – and forty years later they are still living there. With the demise of British Leyland/Austin-Morris, Terry took up self employment, and in 1999 began researching what turned out to be his first book, although it was initially intended as an article for the Ferrari Owners Club ...

Terry had been fortunate enough to achieve his lifelong aim of owning

a Ferrari, and having done so joined the FOC. His interest in motor racing history led him to write articles for the club magazine, and also for the Cavallino magazine in America, so when the club secretary asked Terry for an article with a difference, he came up with the idea of looking at the Bahamas Speed Weeks.

The author with his Ferrari at Spa in the mid 90s.

With Sir Stirling Moss circa 2000.
Terry had taken on two roles for the FOC: club archivist, and classic car show organiser. The former role allowed him the scope to gather material for the archives over a number of years, and at the same time the opportunity to increase his material for the Bahamas Speed Weeks project, until it eventually snowballed into enough content for a book, which Veloce's Rod Grainger agreed to publish in 2006. A large proportion of the research and sourcing of photographs was done in the Bahamas and America, and Terry has been fortunate enough to return to the Bahamas to enjoy the Speed Week Revival meetings over the past two years.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!
Since then, three further books written by Terry have been published by Veloce. Runways and Racers covered the history of the Sports Car Club of America/Strategic Air Command sports car races in the early 1950s, Motor Racing at Nassau, part of Veloce’s ‘Those were the days’ series, and Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-59, which is the first book of an intended series covering sports car and formula racing in northeast America, mid-America, and the mid-Atlantic states.

The author signing copies of his Motor Racing at Nassau book at the Speed Week Revival Meeting 2012.

The author and Derek Bell (driving) take on the Fort Charlotte hillclimb.
A fifth book is now nearing completion, and should be published early in 2015. This title is different from Terry’s previous work, as it concentrates on the racing achievements of one particular car: the Ferrari 333 SP.

The Ferrari Club of America meeting at Laguna Seca 1994. The author poses next to a Ferrari 333 SP.
Click here to view all Veloce books by Terry O'Neil.