Memoirs of the journalist who won Le Mans

A book I awaited with expectancy is Paul Frère’s My Life Full of Cars (Haynes, ISBN 1 85960 670 9, £19.99). I have known Paul for a long time, and here is his story of youthful motoring enthusiasm, growing up to become a top racing and rally driver. At Goodwood test days I used to ask him to give my wife some fast laps, because I knew he was very quick and very safe.

His book covers the cars he drove and raced, his meeting with Enzo Ferrari for whom he drove in F1, and his time in Aston Martins, D-type Jaguars and many versions of the faster Porsches. But that’s only a part of it — becoming a journalist, meeting the ‘greats’, adventures in five continents, all described in his modest style, from the 1920s to today. If you like cars of any type you must not miss these 241 pages, plus Index, exuding driving pleasure in all manner of cars along the years, from the smallest to the racing cars, with lots of performance figures for you to digest.