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Extracts

Life according to Guy Martin

Dead Men Don't Tell Tales

Guy Martin can't sit still. He has to keep pushing - both himself and whatever machine he is piloting - to the extreme. He's a doer, not a talker. 
 
That applies whether Guy's competing in a self-supported 750-mile mountain bike race across Arizona, or trying to reach 300mph in a standing mile on the 800-horsepower motorbike he built in his shed. And during his TV adventures, travelling through Japan, winning records for the world's fastest tractor, re-creating the famous Steve McQueen Great Escape jump, discovering the toil and sacrifice of the D-Day landings and trying to cut the mustard as a Battle of Britain pilot. 
 
Guy's become a dad now and he's hoping that one day his daughter will grow up to be a better welder than he is. Oh, and he's still getting up at 5am to work on trucks in for service or to be out on his tractor, working the Lincolnshire land he's always called home. 
 
This is Guy Martin's latest book, in his own words, on the last four years of his life that make the rest of us look like we're in slow motion. 
 
We're here for a good time, not a long time. To Guy, if it's worth doing, it's worth dying for.

Except for one summer spent sleeping inside a truck in a concrete yard in Northern Ireland, Guy Martin has lived within 20 miles of the Grimsby hospital he was born in, on the 4 November 1981. The professional truck mechanic turned taytie farmer has won multiple international road races, and scored fifteen Isle of Man TT podiums. He is also Channel 4's face of engineering and speed, presenting critically acclaimed documentaries and travelogues, and taking on world records. Did we mention he's also the author of four phenomenal Sunday Times bestselling memoirs? A genuine, one-off marvel.

Guy Martin can't sit still. He has to keep pushing - both himself and whatever machine he is piloting - to the extreme. He's a doer, not a talker. 
 
That applies whether Guy's competing in a self-supported 750-mile mountain bike race across Arizona, or trying to reach 300mph in a standing mile on the 800-horsepower motorbike he built in his shed. And during his TV adventures, travelling through Japan, winning records for the world's fastest tractor, re-creating the famous Steve McQueen Great Escape jump, discovering the toil and sacrifice of the D-Day landings and trying to cut the mustard as a Battle of Britain pilot. 
 
Guy's become a dad now and he's hoping that one day his daughter will grow up to be a better welder than he is. Oh, and he's still getting up at 5am to work on trucks in for service or to be out on his tractor, working the Lincolnshire land he's always called home. 
 
This is Guy Martin's latest book, in his own words, on the last four years of his life that make the rest of us look like we're in slow motion. 
 
We're here for a good time, not a long time. To Guy, if it's worth doing, it's worth dying for.

We Need to Weaken the Mixture

The million-copy selling truck fitter returns, in this new book from the Grimsby mechanic with no off switch.

The million-copy selling truck fitter returns 
 
***Featured on Channel 4*** 
 
'I can't stop biting off more than I can chew. Maybe I'm wearing everything out, but I believe the body is a fantastic thing and it will repair itself and I'll go again. If it's running too rich, I don't stop what I'm doing, just weaken the mixture and carry on.' 
 
Since we last heard from him, Guy Martin has restored a 1983 Williams F1 car then raced Jenson Button in it; helped to build a First World War tank; ridden with Putin's favourite biker gang the Night Wolves; competed on the classic endurance circuit; stood on top of one of Chernobyl's nuclear reactors and taken part in his last ever Isle of Man TT. 
 
Then there's the stuff he really can't wait to get out of bed for: 12-hour shifts for a local haulage firm and tatie farming in his new John Deere tractor. 
 
Besides all this, he's saved his local pub from closure and become a dad. 
 
But let him tell you his own stories, in his own words: 
 
'You're getting it from the horse's mouth. No filter. I hope you enjoy it.'

Guy Martin: Worms to Catch

More death-defying, adrenalin-fuelled, high-speed adventures from everyone’s favourite truck mechanic from Grimsby. Spot on.

‘I was never going to sleep in and take it easy, there were worms to catch.’ 
 
Breaking records on the world’s biggest Wall of Death, cycling 2,745 miles across the length of the United States (while sleeping rough), attempting to be the fastest person ever on two wheels and travelling to Latvia to investigate his family’s roots, it's been a busy year for Guy Martin. There’s been some thrilling racing too, including wild Harley choppers on dirt and turbo-charged Transit vans through the Nevada desert. And don't forget there’s the day job to get back to in North Lincolnshire – the truck yard and the butty van. 
 
Guy has done more in one year than most people do in a lifetime, and with his gift for story-telling, he takes you with him to the outer limits of human endurance, and on a dizzying adrenalin high, all in a day’s work.

Guy Martin: When You Dead, You Dead

‘Just because you’re breathing, doesn’t mean you’re alive!’ Let Guy take you on adventures of a lifetime.

'The maddest 12 months of my life. The journey starts with an oddball race up an American mountain and ends with me checking myself out of hospital with a broken back. Again …' 
 
As Guy’s Latvian grandfather frequently reminded him, ‘When you dead, you dead’. So before it’s all over, Guy Martin is making the most of the time he’s got. 
 
In this past year alone, Guy has raced the Isle of Man TT and finished on the podium; bike trekked through India; competed in solo 24-hour bicycles races; flown a stunt plane; broken a go-kart speed record down a French mountain and attempted to break the motorcycle land-speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats. And he’s done all this around his day job as a truck mechanic. 
 
But let Guy tell you about it himself: ‘This book starts in a Transit, ends in a Transit, and in between I’ve raced a few pushbikes, raced a few motorbikes and got a fair few stories to tell you.’ Spot on.

Guy Martin: My Autobiography

This is the story of life at the centre of the world’s most dangerous sport, by its brightest and biggest star.

Entertaining ... Very much like talking to Guy – fast, scattergun-style, slightly confusing and contradictory on occasion! Guy Martin fans will love it.

The Phenomenal Sunday Times No1 Bestseller 
 
‘It was the start of the third lap of the 2010 Senior TT, the last race of the fortnight. The last chance to get a TT win for another year, and I was pushing hard. 
 
Ballagarey. The kind of corner that makes me continue road racing. A proper man’s corner. You go through the right-hander at something like 170mph, leant right over, eyes fixed as far down the road as I can see. 
 
But this time something happened. This time the front end tucked …’ 
 
Guy Martin, international road-racing legend, maverick star of the Isle of Man TT, truck mechanic and TV presenter, lives on the edge, addicted to speed, thoroughly exhilarated by danger. 
 
In this book we’ll get inside his head as he stares death in the face, and risks his life in search of the next high. 
 
We’ll discover what it feels like to survive a 170mph fireball at the TT in 2010, and come back to do it all again. He’ll sweep us up in a gritty sort of glory as he slogs it out for a place on the podium, but we’ll also see him struggle with the flipside of fame. 
 
We’ll meet his friends and foes, his family, his teammates and bosses and we’ll discover what motivates him, and where his strengths and weaknesses lie. 
 
For the first time, here is the full story in Guy’s own words. From the boy who learned to prep bikes with his dad, to the spirited team mechanic, paying his way by collecting beer glasses in pubs, to the young racer at the start of his first race and the buzz he’s been chasing ever since. 
 
This thrilling autobiography is an intense and dramatic ride.

How to Make Things Go Really Fast

Speed

The ultimate book for speed freaks and thrill seekers, a mix of engineering, science, and going flat out. Has Guy got what it takes to be the fastest? 
 
 Warning: do not try this at home!

Guy Martin is a British motorcycle racer and mechanic, and in his spare time he presents TV programmes. Born in 1981, he followed in his father’s footsteps by racing bikes, and in 2011 starred in the BAFTA nominated cult documentary film TT: Closer to the Edge about the Isle of Man TT. Guy has previously made documentary series’ with North One Television – one for the BBC, called The Boat that Guy Built and How Britain Worked for Channel 4 and now Speed, which combines his passions for engineering and racing very, very fast.

Guy Martin, lorry mechanic, motorcycle racing legend and favourite of the Isle of Man TT, lives for the buzz he feels racing his bike round terrifying bends at 200mph. Nothing, he claims, can match it. Or can it? Guy is about to find out … 
 
 Guy faces four dangerous and thrilling speed record challenges, pushing the boundaries of speed, and his body, to determine just how fast one man can go. 
 
 Together with the best of British engineering and design, scientific research, ground breaking technology and a Gold-medal-winning athlete or two, Guy attempts to pedal a bicycle over 100mph by using the slipstream of an articulated lorry; build the world’s fastest human-powered aircraft; hydroplane a modified motocross bike across a two kilometre lake and become the fastest man on a toboggan. 
 
 Tying in with the Channel 4 television series, Speed offers the inside track – the feats of engineering, the science behind the speed, the history of the challenges and Guy’s adrenaline fuelled, jaw-dropping attempts to break the records. 
 
 How do you create an aeroplane frame that’s super light but safe enough to crash? 
 What should you fill your bicycle tyres with if common air will explode under the heat of 100mph speeds? And why is the shape of a peregrine falcon the ideal model for a toboggan? 
 
 Exploring aerodynamics, surface tension, friction, gravity and ground effect, Guy discovers how and why things go really fast.

How Britain Worked

How Britain Worked is the tie-in to the prime-time Channel 4 TV series by 'the new Fred Dibnah', Guy Martin

Channel 4, and a star was born this week, in the shape of Guy Martin, presenter of How Britain Worked

Guy Martin is a British motorcycle racer and mechanic. Born in 1981, he followed in his father's foosteps by racing bikes, and in 2011 starred in the cult documentary Closer to the Edge about the 2010 TT Races in the Isle of Man. Passionate about maintaining the legacy of the Industrial Revolution's hard grafters, he has previously made a documentary for the BBC, called The Boat that Guy Built, in which he travelled along Britain's canal networks using inventions of the Industrial era.

It is a largely forgotten fact that Britain was the first industrialized country in the world, but Guy Martin - the cult motorcycle racer and mechanic - is about to remind us how the industrial revolution helped make Britain great. 
 
Guy shows how the discoveries made in the late 18th-19th centuries are to thank for the ease of our every day lives: in order to cook a bacon and egg sandwich in Industrial-era conditions, Guy has to restore a steam locomotive and railway to have the components delivered to the local shop; he has to bring a saw mill back into working order to be able to make a bicycle; he has to revamp a Victorian fishing trawler so he can cook himself some fish and chips, and when he decides to mow the lawn, he restores a Victorian botanical garden. After all that, he's in need of a holiday - so he sets to work restoring a Victorian holiday resort. 
 
Illustrated throughout with specially commissioned photography as well as historical images, Guy will take us through each project; his passion, enthusiasm and sheer inventiveness bringing a completely new perspective to the Industrial Revolution. He invites us to live it with him, to enjoy the nostalgia, marvel in the mechanics and learn from its legacy.

Guy Martin

Guy’s been pushing himself to the outer limits, as usual. There's no medals, no big ceremony at the end of it all. He's just driven by putting himself through the misery. And coming out smiling. 
 
In search of suffering, Guy went to Colombia for the TV job, where he was kidnapped, tortured and shot at. He's also been to the Arctic to join the Royal Marines at their winter training centre, taking on the most James Bond exercises he's ever done while still seriously injured from a motorbike crash that knocked him unconcious. 
 
Off the telly, Guy's gone on two epic bike rides, spanning over a dozen countries, led by his sat nav along multi-lane motorways and up remote goat tracks, sleeping on the roadside. He's been to Mablethorpe Beach, the destination for racing things that shouldn't be raced; he's entered one of the toughest motorcycle endurance events in the world (twice); and he's been working on the '300mph job' - that's the world record he's going for and he's building a bike to get him there. 
 
Read on, and let Guy Martin take you with him on his travels to the brink.

Guy Martin

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