A race with love and death : the story of Richard Seaman. / Richard Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Richard, 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seaman, Dick, 1913-1939.

Seaman, Dick.

Automobile racing drivers--Great Britain--Biography.

Automobile racing drivers.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 volume : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Simon & Schuster, 2020.

Summary:

Dick Seaman was the archetypal dashing motorsport hero of the 1930s, the first Englishman to win a race for Mercedes-Benz and the last Grand Prix driver to die at the wheel before the outbreak of the Second World War. Award-winning author Richard Williams reveals the remarkable but now forgotten story of a driver whose battles against the leading figures of motor racing's golden age inspired the post-war generation of British champions. The son of wealthy parents, educated at Rugby and Cambridge, Seaman grew up in a privileged world of house parties, jazz and fast cars. But motor racing was no mere hobby: it became such an obsession that he dropped out of university to pursue his ambitions, squeezing money out of his parents to buy better cars. When he was offered a contract with the world-beating, state-sponsored Mercedes team in 1937, he signed up despite the growing political tensions between Britain and Germany. A year later, he celebrated victory in the German Grand Prix with the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of the founder of BMW. Their wedding that summer would force a split with his family, a costly rift that had not been closed six months later when he crashed in the rain while leading at Spa, dying with his divided loyalties seemingly unresolved. He was just 26 years old. A Race with Love and Death is a gripping tale of speed, romance and tragedy. Set in an era of rising tensions, where the urge to live each moment to the full never seemed more important, it is a richly evocative story that grips from first to last.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE (1911

30)

1. A Mayfair romance

2. Country life

3. Safe and sunlit

4. Away from home

5. The Seaman Special

pt. TWO (1931

36)

6. Princes and spies

7. The Straight syndicate

8. The price of happiness

9. All the hard things

10. Perfidious Albion

11. Boot polish and tear gas

12. Winter work

13. Music to the ears

14. The Voronoff Delage

15. The talent contest

pt. THREE (1937

38)

16. Silver Arrows

17. The wall of death

18. A night in Harlem

19. The goddess of speed

20. In an English garden

21. Royal highness

22. A pretty good joke

pt. FOUR (1938

39)

23. The girl and the prize

24. In the country of `Mr Smith'

25. Picnic in the mountains

26. Home front

27. A quiet wedding

28. A moveable feast

29. The upstarts

30. In the high fens

31. Nunc Dimittis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1471179354

9781471179358

OCLC:

1105855170