The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy novels and is an ambassador for Wattpad, known as @agatharoza. Entwined is her first novel.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

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Maurice Hamilton

A story of true drive – now the topic of a major documentary 
 
Founded in 1977 by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head, Williams F1 represents the last of the true independent teams; a company devoid of corporate dogma and run by enthusiasts driven by a love of racing and the satisfaction that comes with beating the rest of the world. Since its first Grand Prix victory at Silverstone on 14 July 1979, the team has won a further 116 GPs, delivered seven World Champions - among them Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill - and won nine Constructors Championships. 
 
This is the definitive history of the Williams team as told by those who have worked for Williams past and present. At the heart of the book are Sir Frank's personal recollections, along with memories and anecdotes from those at every level: from the shop floor to the upper strata of management; from the mechanics and machinists to the drivers - Mansell, Hill, Alain Prost and Alan Jones among them. It relates both the incredible highs of winning against the odds while never shying the terrible lows - the tragic deaths of Piers Courage in 1970 and Ayrton Senna in 1994 among them. 
 
Conveying the history and soul of a unique band of people, Williams F1 explains exactly why the Williams team is held in more affection than any other team in Britain, if not the world.

Williams

The legendary story of Frank Williams and his F1 team in their own words

Johnny Herbert

Johnny Herbert was one of the most brilliant natural talents to emerge in motor racing, but for all his bravery and prowess, he's lucky to be alive. After becoming British Junior Karting Champion (losing part of a finger in the process), then the Formula 3 title for Eddie Jordan in 1987, he was all set for a glittering debut season in Formula 1 when he was caught in a mass pile-up at Brands Hatch. That horrific crash threatened to end his career, but Herbert made a miraculous recovery, was a hugely popular winner of the British Grand Prix in 1995, and enjoyed 25 years of competitive motorsport, becoming the only British driver to win the 24 hours of Le Mans followed by a Grand Prix. And all that despite driving every pace in extreme pain; in fact, as the first and only disabled driver in F1 history. 
 
While chronicling an extraordinary life behind the wheel with cheer and his trademark cheeky humour, What Doesn't Kill You... contains a wealth of stories from the hard end of Formula 1: on Johnny's team-mate Michael Schumacher, legends like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, his fellow British adversaries Damon Hill, Martin Brundle and Nigel Mansell, and of course all those gruesome accidents. With an encyclopaedic knowledge and love of the sport, Johnny Herbert's autobiography, much like the man himself, delivers brilliance from the back of the grid.

What Doesn't Kill You...

My Life in Motor Racing

Guy Martin

‘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: Worms to Catch

Freddie Spencer

Feel is the story of how a small-time boy from humble beginnings in Louisiana rose to the pantheon of greats, to win the 500cc and 250cc GP Championship in the same year – an historic achievement over three decades ago which has never been repeated. 
 
Growing up at the time of the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Freddie judged by feel, not by colour. Blind to prejudice and discrimination, he formed dynamic connections with people and events, but only years later during his racing afterlife could Freddie come to understand the true power of the things he learned. 
 
Spencer is an articulate and compassionate guide as he describes the thrill and horror of racing in an era when death was a perennial threat. He recalls in pin-sharp detail the frenetic high-octane racing duels with the ‘King’ Kenny Roberts, but also describes a parallel internal journey as he struggled to make sense of it all. 
 
Driven by a search for the personal fulfilment that comes through finding your purpose, Freddie’s story is a universal one. In its message of hope, Feel transcends its genre to offer a story for everyone. Part thriller, part philosophical self-exploration, it is a remarkably insightful account of what it is like to have it all, but wonder why. 
 
“For the first time I will talk about the traumas of my childhood, the contrast between the leaf fire burns, the mistrust and discomfort and the peace and purpose I felt when riding my bike. I didn’t tell my parents about something that happened to me. Why? I felt ashamed, but when I rode I felt connected to everything and the pain in my hand and heart would go away. It gave me the feeling of hope”.

Feel

My Story

'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: When You Dead, You Dead

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.

Guy Martin: My Autobiography

‘He has all the potential to become the greatest of all time’ 
Valentino Rossi, nine-time world champion 
 
Marc Márquez is a phenomenon in the world of motorsports. In his first season in MotoGP, at the tender age of 20, he achieved the extraordinary by becoming the youngest world champion ever. He’s currently dominating in his second season, and is set to become the greatest the sport has ever seen. 
 
 In his first official biography - fully-illustrated with many unseen photographs - Marc offers an exclusive insight into his first year racing in the premier class and his historic championship win. Through the words of his team, his family and his rivals for the title, we begin to understand the answer to his remarkable success. 
 
 It’s the story of Marc’s greatest risks and challenges, from vision problems that put a halt on his career to the huge crash in May that saw him flying off his bike at a staggering speed of 175 mph. But Marc continues to rewrite history, earning titles with his fearless racing and winning fans with his boyish charm and famous smile – and smashing every record along the way.

Marc Marquez

Dreams Come True: My Story

Rod Hunt

The Stig, Top Gear's tame racing driver, is off on another adventure, this time following his passion for speed and adrenaline to its natural conclusion - motorsport. Stig has disappeared into the world of racing, and it's your job to find him. 
 
Follow Stig as he roams from the stifling heat of the Dakar rally to the redneck heartland of a NASCAR track, or from the nightime drama or Le Mans to the mud-soaked stands of Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Along the way you'll also find Clarkson, Hammond and May as they indulge in a spot of home-made motorhome racing or Roman rallying, middle-eastern style. 
 
The Where's Stig books have taken Top Gear fans by storm - and his latest voyage is the most action packed yet!

Where's Stig: Motorsport Madness

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.

Speed

How to Make Things Go Really Fast

Richard Noble

They said it couldn't be done. Sceptics warned that as a car approached 750 mph the shock waves generated when it hit the sound barrier would either force it off the ground like an aeroplane or tear it apart. 
Richard Noble, the modern embodiment of the swashbuckling British speed seeker of yesteryear, was used to that kind of blinkered thinking. He had held the title of The Fastest Man on Earth since 1983, when his Thrust 2 car set a new world land speed record at 633 mph. Critics had argued that he would fail then, too. Noble liked nothing better than a fight. In the late 1990s, as a gripping Anglo-American race began to create the world's first supersonic car, he was determined to achieve this world first for Britain. 
On 15 October 1997, Noble's Thrust SSC, driven by ice-cool RAF Squadron Leader Andy Green, smashed through the sound barrier to create the first supersonic land speed record at 763 mph. The Thrust SSC team had beaten the Americans, thumbed its nose at the sceptics, and realized what seemed an impossible dream. It was a triumph for British engineering, technology and derring-do. 
This is Richard Noble's story of his obsession with speed, from his early days with the crude self-built Thrust 1 jet car, to the world beating Thrust 2; from his innovative ARV Super 2 plane to Atlantic Sprinter, his failed attempt to build a record-breaking boat; culminating in Thrust SSC, the fastest car in the world. 
It is not just a tale of unbroken success but of disappointment and struggle, too - of how Noble risked everything he had to keep the SSC project alive; and of the unentangled human emotions behind one of the greatest engineering achievements of the twentieth century.

Thrust: The Remarkable Story Of One Man's Quest For Speed

Stirling Moss

Sir Stirling Moss, OBE, was a legendary British racing driver. In this collection we hear - in his own words - about his family and upbringing, on starting out and his early career choices, and why he became a racing driver. 
 
 He discusses being a businessman, his relationships and the bittersweet feelings that occur with racing. He also touches on the many dangers involved with the sport, including the loss of friends. Stirling talks about his crash in 1962 - including his injuries and recuperation - as well as his celebrity lifestyle, his continuing popularity and reaching 70. 
 
 The clips included are taken from: Face to Face, BBC TV (first broadcast 12 June 1960); Panorama, BBC TV (first broadcast 16 July 1962); Outlook, BBC Radio (first broadcast 21 May 1974); Profile, first broadcast BBC Radio 4 (21 October 1979) The Colin Berry Programme, BBC Radio 1 (first broadcast 24 March 1980); Stirling at 70, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 17 September 1999); A Stirling Effort, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 5 November 2004). 
 
 Due to the age and nature of this archive material, the sound quality may vary. 
 
©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Stirling Moss In His Own Words

Murray Walker

Simon Taylor

Murray Walker combines and enclyclopaedic knowlege of Grand Prix racing with an unbridled fanaticism that remains undimmed after more than half a century of race commentaries. 
In his personal tribute to the sport, he celebrates the most talented drivers of all time, the rivalries that have set his pulse racing and the circuits he finds the most inspiring. 
 
This updated edition of Murray Walker's Formula One Heroes gives an 'in a nutshell' appraisal of legends old and new from an esteemed hero and geniuine F1 insider who, even now he' retired, cannot keep his all-consuming passion off the page.

Murray Walker's Formula One Heroes

Richard Williams

Millions of people around the world watched in horror on that fateful day in Imola at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna's car careered off the track at 190mph. The greatest driver in Formula One history was dead. 
In this classic sports book, reissued to tie-in with a new Working Title documentary film about Senna, Richard Williams explores the complex Brazilian who was a hero in his own country and an icon to everyone who loved not just motor-racing but sport itself. In his drive to win and his desire always to test himself to the limit, Senna embodied all that is best and most thrilling in sport.

The Death of Ayrton Senna

Clive Couldwell

Formula One: Made in Britain is one of Formula One's last untold stories. 
As a centre of technical excellence for over thirty years. Britain is at the sharp end of the worldwide motor sport industry, and playing ever harder to win. Most of the sport's Grand Prix teams are based in the UK and many of them have British managers and designers who act as a showcase for the UK's skill base - past, present and future. 
The success of Britain's Formula One industry has gone largley unrecognised outside the close-knit world of the racing aficionado. Now, with Formula One: Made in Britain, Clive Couldwell reveals what makes this industry tick and why many of the world's players choose to come here. 
He explores Motorsport Valley, an area which covers the south and Midlands of the UK, where 75 per cent of the world's single-seater racing cars are designed and built, and talks to many of F1's leading lights. 
Winning in F1 depends on innovation and performance-critical engineering, and in this fascinating and insightful book, Clive Couldwell show how UK research and development are leading the world.

Formula One: Made In Britain

Rick Broadbent

MotoGP is enjoying a period of unprecedented popularity and Ring of Fire details the acclaim, the heroism and the pressures of riding motorbikes at speeds of more than 200mph. This is a world where manufacturers invest millions and the world champion celebrates by staging mock jail breaks and giving pillion rides to a blow-up doll. One rider warms up for major races by singing Hank Marvin songs on his karaoke machine and a rising Italian star sees the world in terms of black and white energy tubes. Another sees nothing strange in racing with two broken ankles. 
 
Ring of Fire covers the recent history of MotoGP, from American Nicky Hayden spectacularly overturning established champion Valentino Rossi in 2006, through the emergence of wild young Australian Casey Stoner as the new champion in 2007, to the fierce rivalry between them and Spaniards Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo in what would prove to be one of the most closely-contested years of racing in 2008. It gives a behind the scenes look at World Superbike Champion James Toseland's attempts to break into this elite, and looks back at the tradition of reprobates, romance and debauchery in the paddock dating back to the 60s and stars like Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostino. 
 
Rick Broadbent introduces us not just to the stars and the multi-million pound contracts, but also to the officals, mechanics, doctors, team owners and fans who make up this white-knuckle ride of a sport. By turns funny, sad, shocking and uplifting, Ring of Fire brings us face to face with those who battle to emerge unscathed, or who just ignore the pain and ride to win against all odds.

Ring of Fire

Malcolm Folley

The definitive story of F1's most famous - and deadly - rivalries. 
 
In the late eighties and early nineties, Formula One was at its most explosive, with thrilling races, charismatic drivers, nail-biting climaxes - and the most deadly rivalry ever witnessed in sport. Two of Formula One's most honoured champions and iconic figures drove together for McLaren for two seasons, and their acrimonious and hostile relationship extended even after one of them had left the team. 
 
ALAIN PROST: France's only F1 world champion, the intelligent, smooth driver with the epithet 'Le Professeur'. 
 
AYRTON SENNA: the mercurial kid from a privileged background in Sao Paolo who would become the most intense and ruthless racing driver the world has ever seen. 
 
It was a story that would have a tragic ending. 
 
As the great rivals raced to victory, their relationship deteriorated badly, beginning with the breaking of a gentleman's agreement, and public spats followed, culminating in Prost accusing Senna of deliberately trying to ride him off the circuit, and fearful that the Brazilian would get someone killed with his daring overtaking feats. And the final, sad act of this drama happened at the San Marino Grand prix at Imola in May 1994, when Senna was killed. 
 
Featuring a rare interview with Prost, and insight from Martin Brundle, Damon Hill, Sir Frank Williams, Bernie Ecclestone, Derek Warrick, Johnny Herbert, Gerhard Berger, plus McLaren insiders and other F1 figures, Malcolm Folley provides us with a breath-taking account of one of the all-time classic sporting rivalries.

Senna Versus Prost

A J Baime

Coming to cinemas in November 2019, under the title LE MANS '66 
____________________ 
 
In the 1960s Enzo Ferrari emerged as the dominant force in sports cars in the world, creating speed machines that were unbeatable on the race track. In America, the Ford Motor Company was quickly losing ground as the pre-eminent brand. Henry Ford II saw a solution. He decided to declare war on Ferrari, to build a faster car than anything Ferrari had brought to the track, and to beat him at the world's biggest race, Le Mans. Ferrari was just as determined to see off this challenge from across the Atlantic. 
 
With practically no safety regulations in place in the European Grand Prix races, horrific accidents were routine, with both drivers and spectators killed in many races. The stakes were incredibly high, money and men were thrown at the competition, neither Ford or Ferrari would accept anything but victory. The battle to become the fastest in the world truly became a race to the death.

Go Like Hell

Ford, Ferrari and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans

Ron Haslam

Leon Haslam

'Rocket' Ron Haslam started racing on the professional circuit in 1972 at the age of 15 and developed into one of the finest, and fastest, racers the UK has ever seen. Winner of three World titles and four British championships, as well as a record six Macau GPs, he rode in more than 100 Grands Prix. Despite tragically losing two of his brothers in motorbike accidents, Haslam kept on riding, setting speed records wherever he went. 
 
His son, Leon, the 'Pocket Rocket', is following in his father's extremely speedy footsteps. A national Motorcross champion and national Scooter champion at the age of just 14, he became the youngest ever rider to compete in the 500cc World Championship and is now one of Britain's top racers, competing for Stiggy Honda in the World Superbike Championship. 
 
This is the extraordinary story of a father and a son who are addicted to motorbikes, with all the thrills and spills, miraculous escapes and multiple broken bones that involves. Both colourful characters, their story takes us all the way from the 1970s to today and is full of hilarious high-octane derring-do, a cast of characters including legends like Fast Freddie Spencer and Barry Sheene, and nothing less than terrifying but exhilarating adventure.

Rocket Men

Gerald Donaldson

Juan Manuel Fangio's name is indelibly inscribed in the record books and many consider him to be the greatest driver in history. 
 
It was 46 years before his record of five World Championships was beaten, but even now he is still remembered for an exceptional Formula 1 career which contained some of the greatest displays of skill and daring ever seen. 
 
Few though know of his almost super-human exploits in epic South American road races that made competition at the pinnacle of motor sport seem like child's play. 
 
Gerald Donaldson chronicles not only those arduous early competitions but also his long journey from humble origins in remote Argentina to the lofty heights of international celebrity.

Fangio

The Life Behind the Legend

James Hunt was a towering personality with a commanding presence, a hugely glamorous public figure who brought Formula One motor racing to the attention of a whole new audience. 
 
Triumphing against all odds to become World Drivers' Champion with McLaren in 1976, Hunt sank into a period of decadence and depression, only to be rejuvenated as he found true love for the first time. 
 
With that came personal contentment and a renewed zest for living, so that one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Grand Prix racing is best remembered by those close to him as a fun-loving, caring man who had a genuinely uplifting presence - qualities that shine through in Gerald Donaldson's compelling and moving account of his life.

James Hunt

The Biography

Alexander Roy

On his deathbed, Alex Roy's father dropped tantalizing hints about the notorious Cannonball Run of the 1970s, the utterly illegal high-speed non-stop races from New York to LA. Inspired by his father's dying words, and against the advice of his friends, Roy enters this mysterious world - trying both to find himself, and to locate 'The Driver' - the anonymous organizer of the world's ultimate car race. 
 
In this riveting memoir, Roy straps you into his highly modified BMW M5, takes you on a terrifying 120 mph lap of Manhattan, then tackles the Gumball 3000 and the Bullrun - the two most infamous road rallies in the world. His bogus Polizei Autobahn Interceptor sticks out among the Lamborghinis and Ferraris driven by millionaire playboys, software moguls, Arab princes, movie stars, leggy Czech supermodels, gearheads, and tech whizzes. Armed with myriad radar detectors, laser jammers and police scanners, and his trunk crammed with a variety of fake uniforms, the obsessively prepared Roy evades arrest at almost every turn, wreaking havoc on his fiercest rivals and gaining the admiration of police forces around the globe. 
 
Filled with insane driving and Roy's quixotic quest to win both for his late father and himself, The Driver is the tale of one man's insatiable drive beyond life in the fast lane.

The Driver

True Life Adventures of an Underground Road Racer

Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi is the greatest living motorcyclist. His legions of fans adore him (over 4,000 turned up to see him in Leicester Square last March). He has fought through the 125 and 250 class groups to win the World Championships five times and has been ranked in the top three places at the World Championships for the last nine years. He is currently the MotoGP World Champion, and has won on a Honda bike - considered the best - and most recently on a Yamaha - considered the worst. He is arguably the greatest racer ever - and certainly the most entertaining - his post race antics and cheeky personality have won him as many fans as his on-track prowess. He is the kind of star who only comes along once in a while - a Muhammad Ali or Pele - hugely talented, massively driven, yet also scorching charismatic, unnervingly rebellious and totally endearing - a twentieth-century version of the hell-raisers of old. 
 
All who know Rossi say he is a consummate professional, that he works harder than anyone could ever realise, but that most of all, he still loves what he does. He just seems to win more because he's still enjoying himself so much.He is infamous for his on the edge riding, pushing himself and his bike to the very limits of what they can do, and screaming around racecourses in record times. But he is also well known for his good looks, his techni-coloured hair and cheeky humour - and for his sheer youthful exuberance in victory - his post-match victory laps have become a thing of legend. Previously he has driven victory laps in full beach gear, including flip-flops, with a man sized chicken riding pillion (and also, in a jibe to Max Biaggi who had an unceremonious break-up with the model Naomi Campbell, with a life size doll of Claudia Schiffer strapped on behind him.) 
 
His warmth of character coupled with his amazing career statistics to date - his first GP win aged 17, his first world title at 18, his first 500 class win at 21 and his first MotoGP win at 22 - mean that this young man has the motorcycle racing world at his feet. His raw talent coupled with his firm belief in the 'entertainment' aspect of his sport and the importance of his fans, means that he really is the David Beckham of bikes - he has done the near impossible and transcended his own territory. His appeal - being at the top of his game without being a purist, still being seen to be young and excited by the game, and being a perfectionist on and off the track when it comes to his driving - means that he really is one of the superstars of the sporting world.

What If I Had Never Tried It

Martin Brundle

In this unique book the reader will have his armchair converted to the laid-down cockpit of a Formula One car and be swept around the world's classic motor racing circuits. He will experience the extraordinary sensations, the adrenaline and the atmosphere as told by the sport's best analyst. 
 
Together with F1's respected journalist, Maurice Hamilton, Brundle brings his infallible humour and insight, his experiences and opinion, to each of the circuits and its classic races. From the camber at Monaco, which will leave your wheels hanging in the air, to Melbourne and the dynamics behind the most dramatic crash of the decade. Encompassing such essential details as neck-snapping acceleration, smashing cars worth a quarter of a million, and the amount of sweat a driver will lose in a race, this is a rare F1 book - funny, opinionated, evocative and dramatic.

Working The Wheel

David Tremayne

Generations are familiar with the haunting black and white television footage of Donald Campbell somersaulting to his death in his famous Bluebird boat on Coniston Water in January, 1967. It has become an iconic image of the decade. His towering achievements, and the drama of his passing, are thus part of the national psyche. 
 
But what of the man himself? 
 
The son of the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell who was famous for being the ultimate record-breaker of the inter-war years - he broke the land speed record nine times and the water speed record four times with his Bluebird cars and boats - Donald Campbell was born to speed. He was outgoing and flamboyant, yet carefully orchestrated the image he presented to the world. Some saw him as a playboy adventurer; others, such as the radio producer on the twenty-first anniversary of his death, as a reckless daredevil with a death wish. He was known to take solace in extra-marital dalliances, and was obsessed with spiritualism. And in his final years, battered by a 360-mph accident while attempting the land record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and his prolonged and anti-climactic subsequent effort on the treacherous Lake Eyre in Australia, Campbell appeared a haggard and often frightened man. He had become trapped on his record-breaker's treadmill as he continually sought to prove himself to his illustrious father, in whose long shadow he felt forever trapped. 
 
DONALD CAMPBELL: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK paints a fascinating portrait of an intense, complex, superstitious yet abnormally brave man who was driven not only by the desire to prove that he was worthy of the mantle of his father, but also by his fervent and unswerving desire to keep Britain at the forefront of international speed endeavour. This book generates a unique insight into how his desperate fear of failure finally lured him into taking one risk too many.

Donald Campbell

The Man Behind The Mask

Timothy Collings

Now fully revised and updated, The Piranha Club is the first serious study of Formula One's most fascinating and influential figures - the men who wield the real power. 
Author Timothy Collings has written a riveting analysis of the Formula One paddock, explaining how it works, who runs it, how it makes money and what sort of people exist there.

The Piranha Club: Power and Influence in Formula One

Gilles Villeneuve became a legend in his own time, a driver whose skill and daring personified the ideals of Grand Prix racing, the pinnacle of motor sport. 
With his flamboyantly aggressive, press-on-regardless style in his scarlet Ferrari, he captured the imagination of a vast international audience as no other driver has in recent times.

Gilles Villeneuve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver

Colin McRae

Derick Allsop

Colin McRae is a legendary name in rally driving. He was born in 1968, the son of Rally King Jimmy McRae. This is the full, personal story of the sport's greatest talent, and highest paid driver (-3million a year). It has been a dramatic and dangerous climb to the pinnacle of success and his fearless driving style and fierce determination have turned him into a hero of the sport. And it was this charisma, and his inimitable driving style, that led Playstation to call their bestselling driving game Colin McRae Rally. This is a gripping and passionate life story that takes us from his close family upbringing, through his early success with Subaru, through to his wins with Ford, the much hyped competition with Richard Burns and his current incredible lifestyle. It's all in here - the skill, the speed, the danger, the friendships, the rivalries and the adrenalin - The Real McRae: The Autobiography.

The Real McRae

The Autobiography of the Peoples Champion

For tens of millions of people around the world, a single name evokes the world of speed - Enzo Ferrari. Today's Formula One would be unthinkable without the presence of the Ferrari cars on the grid. Win or lose, Ferrari attract more fans than all the other teams combined. And the cars unique appeal - their mystique, their myth - has its origins in the story of one man with a dictator's will and the cunning of a Machiavelli. 
 
Going back to the origins of "The Old Man", tracing his remarkable rise to prominence, and using sources which have hitherto remained silent, Richard Williams tells the story of a man who was one of the key figures of sport in the twentieth century, and whose influence over his sport is undiminished today, more than a decade after his death.

Enzo Ferrari

A Life

Nick Mason

Into The Red

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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