Stirling Moss

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Robert Edwards

Used from £7.25

Pages: 360 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0304359041

Pub: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Pub date: 2001-07-26

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 695198

Editorial Review:

At the time of his shock retirement after a near-fatal crash in 1962, motor-racing legend Stirling Moss was the most famous British sportsman of his era, and is still rated by some as the most successful driver of all time. Now, nearly 40 years later, motor sport writer Robert Edwards draws on unprecedented access to the man himself, and his private library of images and memorabilia, as they reflect together on an extraordinary life on the edge.
Moss rose to the top in an era when death on the track was a commonplace hazard; when drivers squeezed astonishing speeds out of cars, that in safety and handling terms would compare unfavourably with a modern-day family runabout.
Stirling took the lead on lap 35 and started to watch his tyres very carefully indeed ... on lap 65 the tell-tale breaker strip started to appear as the tread was simply smeared off the tyre. The odds on having a puncture were now very short. The gearbox was holding up (the clutch had failed 40-odd laps ago) ... and Stirling began to drive very carefully, directing the smoothed and fragile tyres across every piece of grass he could find to ease the friction...
What made it possible, far more than in today's digitally engineered and monitored sport, was the character of the man behind the grime-encrusted goggles. In Moss's case, as Edwards reveals, the popular image of the steely-eyed, ramrod-backed Knight of the British Empire is far from the complete story.

An exquisitely designed coffee table book--and it would have to be a pretty robust piece of furniture, because this is a notably hefty tome--Stirling Moss--The Authorised Biography displays production values, and a daring but sympathetic use of abundant visual material, that would not be out of place in a work of art history. And a similarly scholarly philosophy underpins the comprehensive and revealing text--Edwards is clearly a fan, but is happy to let Moss the man, and his achievements, stand in their historical and social context. This book is all the more entertaining and awe-inspiring for that. --AlexHankin

Reader Reviews:

Writer fails to excite (1/1 people found this helpful)

To be honest, I'm finding Edwards' style rather annoying at times - constantly using French phrases in italics, which are really not commonly used in English. Pretentious, moi?

All the facts are here, and the book contains some interesting stuff, because I really know nothing about Moss. However, the author certainly does not have the writing prowess to bring alive a motor race, like Donaldson does, for example. Along with this book, I also bought Donaldson's Fangio, so I'm looking forward to that!

Didn't live up to its promise. (1/1 people found this helpful)

The big coffee table hardback version is worth having for the scales of the photos, but this paperback edition has to rely on the narrative, and I've found that somewhat misses what it promises. I didn't really find that it gave me any more of an insight into its subject that I've got from the countless other books which have preceeded it. I've kept the hardback, but the paperback has been sold on.

Still not the definitive biography (5/6 people found this helpful)

This may be the best book yet on Moss, but still it falls far short of the definitive biography that I was hoping for. This is probably due to the fact that Mr. Moss is still alive(thankfully!)and really good biographies never seem to be written while the subject is still around.

Nevertheless, I must say that this book is lite reading, far too much emphasis on design and photos--the best of which we've seen many many times. More indepth exploration of the man would have been appreciated. There are some interesting revelations, but not enough to make up for what is really another rehashing of the well known legend of Stirling.

What type of book did I have in mind? Something truly definitive like Gerald Donaldson's James Hunt.

Awesome, thrilling and utterly enthralling (0/2 people found this helpful)

The best Biography I have ever read,The Photographs are first class, Sterling is our boy hood hero, A man who thrived on competition and excelled eveywhere, where will the next Sterling come from?

As good to read as it is to look at. (4/4 people found this helpful)

Superb illustrations and well-considered words make this an excellent biography of one of the sport's greatest heroes. Edwards has clearly spent a lot of time getting to know Moss and has produced a superb book that goes well beyond the typical "...and then we went to Monza" biographical cliches - the book shows a clear understanding of Moss's character, background and ambitions.

It's also one of the most handsome racing books I've seen for a long time - up with Eric Dymock's "The Jim Clark Book" as a triumph of tasteful design work.

Excellent, thought-provoking, and definitely a book you'll come back to both to read and to look at.

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