Book Review: Rolls-Royce by Leonard Setright
Monographs were once ten-a-penny when it came to classic car brands but have been rendered somewhat redundant by the abundance of information now readily available online. However, not all marque histories follow the same formula.
I picked up this 50-year-old copy of Setright’s Rolls-Royce in the wonderful Powell’s bookstore when I was on holiday recently in Portland, Oregon. It’s a treasure trove of books old and new on every subject imaginable and has a decent automotive section.
This one caught my eye because in my first job as a staff writer I corresponded regularly with Leonard Setright during the final two years of his life (he died in 2005, aged 74). Leonard was writing features and columns for Tire Technology International to the end and regularly amazed us all not just with his encyclopedic knowledge and technical understanding, but with the most elegantly constructed, tightest copy you’ll ever hope to read, or ever fear to edit!
Rewind to 1971 and we find Leonard or ‘LJK’ at the peak of his powers. Rolls-Royce covers the luxury marque from its origins in the earliest days of motoring, via the glory days of the ‘Best Car in the World’, to the brink of receivership and nationalization. Note that the narrative covers both the car side and RR’s aero-engine business. Setright tackles both with ease: check out his seminal The Power to Fly (George Allen & Unwin, also 1971) for further evidence that he was just as comfortable writing about the engines powering aeroplanes as he was those in cars.
Particularly given the era in which this book was published and the conservative nature of the marque in question, we could easily have wound up with a deferential, plodding account of Rolls’s rise and fall. Not a bit of it. Setright’s mastery of the subject matter is matched by the strength of his opinions. His outspoken, often witty narrative keeps you engaged for all of the modest paperback’s 160 pages.
If he thinks management made a bad decision, he tells you so. If he thinks a particular model was badly executed, likewise. Take the case of the unfortunate Bentley S-type Continental from 1955, which was, “heavy, ill-handling and prey to rust”. By this point, says LJKS, “People who bought Bentleys were mainly the sort of people who liked to be seen as the sort of people who bought Bentleys.” Can’t see that line making the official history!
Much of the material on the early days of the company was new to me and as a fan of old planes, I especially enjoyed his account of developing the Kestrel and Merlin in the 1930s and 40s. It’s interesting that the Merlin, for all its subsequent success, was a departure from what he identifies as hitherto RR’s greatest strength: the ability to thoroughly develop a product before offering it to the market.
Copies of this book are plentiful and inexpensive in the second-hand market as it was later updated and reissued by Foulis/Haynes. It’s well worth hunting down.
Rolls-Royce (Ballantine’s Illustrated History of the Car – Marque book No7)
by Leonard Setright
Ballantine Books, 1971
Find it on eBay
I picked up this 50-year-old copy of Setright’s Rolls-Royce in the wonderful Powell’s bookstore when I was on holiday recently in Portland, Oregon. It’s a treasure trove of books old and new on every subject imaginable and has a decent automotive section.
This one caught my eye because in my first job as a staff writer I corresponded regularly with Leonard Setright during the final two years of his life (he died in 2005, aged 74). Leonard was writing features and columns for Tire Technology International to the end and regularly amazed us all not just with his encyclopedic knowledge and technical understanding, but with the most elegantly constructed, tightest copy you’ll ever hope to read, or ever fear to edit!
Rewind to 1971 and we find Leonard or ‘LJK’ at the peak of his powers. Rolls-Royce covers the luxury marque from its origins in the earliest days of motoring, via the glory days of the ‘Best Car in the World’, to the brink of receivership and nationalization. Note that the narrative covers both the car side and RR’s aero-engine business. Setright tackles both with ease: check out his seminal The Power to Fly (George Allen & Unwin, also 1971) for further evidence that he was just as comfortable writing about the engines powering aeroplanes as he was those in cars.
Particularly given the era in which this book was published and the conservative nature of the marque in question, we could easily have wound up with a deferential, plodding account of Rolls’s rise and fall. Not a bit of it. Setright’s mastery of the subject matter is matched by the strength of his opinions. His outspoken, often witty narrative keeps you engaged for all of the modest paperback’s 160 pages.
If he thinks management made a bad decision, he tells you so. If he thinks a particular model was badly executed, likewise. Take the case of the unfortunate Bentley S-type Continental from 1955, which was, “heavy, ill-handling and prey to rust”. By this point, says LJKS, “People who bought Bentleys were mainly the sort of people who liked to be seen as the sort of people who bought Bentleys.” Can’t see that line making the official history!
Much of the material on the early days of the company was new to me and as a fan of old planes, I especially enjoyed his account of developing the Kestrel and Merlin in the 1930s and 40s. It’s interesting that the Merlin, for all its subsequent success, was a departure from what he identifies as hitherto RR’s greatest strength: the ability to thoroughly develop a product before offering it to the market.
Copies of this book are plentiful and inexpensive in the second-hand market as it was later updated and reissued by Foulis/Haynes. It’s well worth hunting down.
Rolls-Royce (Ballantine’s Illustrated History of the Car – Marque book No7)
by Leonard Setright
Ballantine Books, 1971
Find it on eBay