DRIVEN - an elegy to cars , roads and motorsport

DRIVEN - an elegy to cars , roads and motorsport

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coppice

Original Poster:

8,639 posts

145 months

Monday 29th July 2019
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...is the title of my third book, but my first on the subject. It is published on 2 August by Veloce and is in soft back and Kindle(more details on Amazon)

It is a big read, and needs to be as the subject matter is wide . It is partly autobiographical (eg teenage marshal and rabid car enthusiast , driving my beloved Sevens,) also reflections on F1, NASCAR , Ferrari (and lots ) more .

About 40% of the 160,000 words is devoted to my year 2017/18 , when I attended about 25 different motorsport events - from Goodwood to grasstrack , from dragstrip to Silverstone and from rally stage to speed hillclimb . My theme is to give a flavour of the diversity of event , people and machinery - and I interview over 100 different people to get their take . They vary from teenage drag drivers via BTCC driver and Time Attack racer (one Guy martin ) to former GP driver and lots of people who are just ordinary Joes who love the sport as much as I do .

I also rant a bit , but soften that with a playlist for the NC500 .

I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it .

PS -the author isn't called 'Coppice' but John Aston .

PPS - Outrageous , this is an advert., you might say . Well , it sort of is, but I won't get rich , as very few books make much. And as the book has cost me a fair bit (eg 6000 miles, many nights away , and about 900 hours of my own time at a desktop )it sort of owes me !

velocemitch

3,815 posts

221 months

Monday 29th July 2019
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Good luck with it, I will look out for it on Kindle.

I know how much time will have gone in to it and how hard it is to recover your outlay.

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 14th August 2019
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I’ll going to have a look for this now myself. Hope it is successful for you as well as rewarding to have written and published.

coppice

Original Poster:

8,639 posts

145 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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Good man . Enjoy the read and tell us what you think .

227bhp

10,203 posts

129 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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The title is interesting, an elegy is a song or poem about someone who is dead.

coppice

Original Poster:

8,639 posts

145 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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Literally speaking yes , but in the broader sense it connotes reflection . Some of the book is just that ,as I write about long past spectacles such as 70s F1 and Gp B, 'lost ' circuits and my early hooligan days in forgotten cars like my Clan Crusader. There is modern stuff too , but it's hard not to sense an imminent sea change in driving and motor sport.

The original title was 'Refuge of the Roads' , which my website is still entitled but for SEO reasons (get me , I'd never heard of SEO until recently ) the publisher suggested the Driven bit , with the elegaic bit all my own work ! Anyway , if you buy it(as you should of course) I hope you enjoy the read .

coppice

Original Poster:

8,639 posts

145 months

Friday 13th September 2019
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Some nice reviews appearing - including in Classic Cars and on speedreaders.info.

And one rather meh review - so he's off my Christmas card list , miserable bd .................