Media Reviews

Octane - Best New Motoring Book, August 2005

Sometimes, ephemera can tell you as much about a subject as the meticulously researched biography - and it's a lot more fun to look at. That's why this latest addition to the Moss canon is so welcome: it's basically a collation of press cuttings, snapshots and personal mementoes from Moss's own albums, celebrating one of the most important years of his life. In 1955 Moss finished second to Fangio in the F1 World Championship and won the Milli Miglia and the Targa Floria, a remarkable tally by any standards.

Naturally, such major events are well documented here, but it's the the peripheral stuff that catches the eye - photos of the young Moss, looking impossibly fit and handsome, waterskiing on the Italian Riviera in the perfect encapsulation of La Dolce Vita, or pull-out quotes about Moss's many girlfriends, such as the ultra-brief and cryptic 'Brookie was an American press girl'. The numerous clippings from newspapers of the day give you a tabloid sense of immediacy that a conventional biography never could.

Dipping into this world of glamour make you feel like a 1950s star-struck school-boy, whether or not you ever were one.

Stirling Moss Scrapbook

1955

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