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 enlarge | Author: Sir Jackie Stewart
Publisher: Headline
Category: Book
List Price: £20.00
Buy New: £11.40
You Save: £8.60 (43%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 3688
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Har/DVD
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 495
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 2
ISBN: 0755315375
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.72092
EAN: 9780755315376
ASIN: 0755315375
Publication Date: October 13, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Disappointed January 10, 2008
Having lived through the Jackie Stewart era I looked forward to this book, but found myself skipping large parts of it. Not enough about racing and far too much name dropping. I have no interest in lists of people who go shooting and fishing. A good section on dyslexia was an eye opener, however. Jackie bangs on about having regular health checks, but how many of us can afford two day sessions at the Mayo Clinic every year?
Overall not really a book for someone interested in a racing career..and not too well illustrated either.
 A Superb Autobiography January 2, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a fan of Formula 1 (though not fanatically so) and having lived through the Jackie Stewart era I suggested to my wife that this book would be a nice Christmas present. It duly appeared on the 25th beneath the tree and yesterday I finished reading it. To say I found it a fascinating and absorbing autobiography (and that is what it really is with not a ghost writer in sight) is a gross understatement. Certainly Sir Jackie covers his glory years in F1 in some detail but the book is much more than that. As a statement of belief from a man who has made a great success of his life despite early, and serious, deficiencies it is without parallel. I would recommend the book to any thinking person be they a fan of motor sport or no.
 Not what I expected. January 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed many parts of this book - and, indeed, some of it can move you to tears, particularly when he talks about his relationship with and the death of Francois Cevert. But, overall I was disappointed. Like other reviewers, I expected more of "life in the cockpit" and what makes a successful racing driver. The fact that on a particular day when on a business trip sometime in the 1960's he wore light gray slacks and tie etc etc make me race ahead to find a more interesting section. Yes - it gives an intimate portrait of JYS, but if you expect to learn more about racing in the 60's and 70's then there are other biographies that paint a more complete picture.
Well-written, but curiously unsatisfying November 22, 2007
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
This autobiography (and, for once, it really was written by the man himself, no ghosting here I think) is a very well written account of John Young Stewart's entire life. By that I mean that we don't just get the racing career. The book includes a long section on how his parents met and set up their garage business (well before Jackie Stewart's birth) Jackie's early life at school (not happy...), his brother's racing career, his early sporting success at clay pigeon shooting, racing, then business, endorsements, testing Ford cars, his family, Rolex, his friends (oh so many... mostly famous), setting up Paul Stewart Racing, Ford, moving into F1 again as Stewart Grand Prix, Rolex, his dogs, his friends, charity work, his son's illness, Ford, his brother's illness, his dog's illness, getting suits cut to fit over a Rolex, his friends, etc etc etc.
So why only three stars for such a chunky and comprehensive book? Well, I'm a petrolhead. Yes, I know, limited horizons perhaps, but I'm guessing that some people buying this book might (as I did) hope for more about the actual racing life, and the time spent within the team and behind the wheel. You notice how the racing career gets a little lost in that list I cobbled together above? Well, that's a little like the way the book comes across too. His racing doesn't really get going before about a quarter of the way into the book, and by half distance he's shown it the black flag and gone on to other things. Even within that section there are curious holes in the narrative. Where did the 1967 season go, for instance? During this year JYS was lumbered with the infamous BRM H16 powerplant, a unit on which his scathing "anchor for a ship" comment has passed into legend. But we get very little about just why it was so bad. This may well be the natural sportsman's attitude that you forget the bad and dwell on the good, but to find yourself slammed straight from 1966 into the front end of 1968 is a narrative car crash of Kubica-at-Montreal proportions. Similarly, 1972 seems to have done a bunk, although we are treated to an absorbing eulogy to Tyrrell 003 (hence, 1971 is quite well taken care of).
But... only once, on page 194, do we really get an idea about what went on in Sir Jackie's mind during a race. And this from one of the most thoughtful racing drivers in the sport's entire history! During his career Stewart drove an amazing variety of machinery, from the light and delicate BRM P261 F1 car of 1965, through the increasingly potent and rapid 3-litre cars (during the nacent slicks-n-wings stage, no less!), to monsters of CanAm. However, somehow we never really get an idea about what it was that lit Jackie's fuse about motor racing, other than the fact that he turned out to be good at it. What comes through is that Jackie Stewart (rightly) regards his driving career as a strictly limited period in his life. Having seen many interviews with the man, and heard him enthuse about motor racing, I really can't understand where all that went when he was writing this tome.
Despite the star rating, I would actually recommend this book, but be aware that this is not a driver's eye view of the glamourous late-60s and early-70s F1 circus, it is a portrait of a man. An acutely observed one, at that. I will stick at only three stars, however, as I can't help but feel that this book is being missold. The dust jacket features a shot of 006/2 (his last F1 car), a chequered flag pattern, and the rear has a moody portrait of JYS in his full-sideburned, early 70s pomp. But, to be honest, it really ought to be emblazoned with Ford, Rolex and Elf logos. He seems to be more in love with these corporations than ever he was with the smell of Castrol. Them and the Mayo Clinic. As his racing career lasted only about a decade, and his subsequent corporate career has spanned nearly four times that length, perhaps the balance is about right. Unfortunately, for me, while the ins and outs of corporate shmoozing, wheeling and dealing obviously push Jackie's buttons, they don't mine. Closing this book for the last time I felt that I had gained a huge understanding of the real Sir Jackie Stewart. Unfortunately, I think I preferred the fantasy. Ah well.
Absorbing read October 25, 2007
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
I expected this book to be a standard motor racing autobiography but it is much more than that. It arguably the best autobiography ever written by a racing driver and I have read most of them. In fact it is a highly absorbing read. And it is, for the most part, a very honest book.
Unusually, for this type of book, Sir Jackie wrote it himself without a ghost writer and it is all the better for that. And it is not only about motor racing it is about life in general with lots of self-help and business advice included. It is also quirky with a chapter on Sir Jackie's dogs that cannot fail to move anyone to tears. Anyone who buys this book - or gets it for Christmas will be totally delighted.
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