Motoring through "Punch" –1900-1970

Edited by Russell Brockbank. 153 pp.11-1/4 in. x 8-3/8 in.

(David & Charles Ltd.,. South Devon House, Newton Abbot, Devon. 42s.)

Here is a comic history of the motor carr never previously published, although in the past Punch has produced books of its motor cartoons, and some of those in the work under review have appeared therein or in other Brockbank publications. This is criticism of a carping nature, for there is something for almost everyone in “Motoring Through Punch”, from the first 1900 cartoon to the latest by Brockbank himself. The selection of cartoons is divided into those laughing at the Pioneers, the Thirties and War-time, the Post-War Forties and the Sixties, with a section on “Tenez a Droite”.

Brockbank contributes a lively Introduction, although I do not believe he has ever truly heard an overhead camshaft that clutters (the drive, perhaps?) or has smelt warm oil from the engine for a very long time? No matter! There is social history within these covers. An excellent, if costly, Christmas present.—W. B.