Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.”—Boris Pasternak
The publisher of several of my photography books once told me, “less that 20% of books that are received as gifts are actually read…” Over the many years I’ve been lucky enough to receive books as gifts, and I must confess that occasionally I may smile and say “thank you” but never get around to reading the book. Part of the reason, maybe the main or only reason, was that I wasn’t really interested in the subject or maybe the author. But I could never bring myself to toss them out—I never throw books away as long as my local library will take them as a donation—because I could never bring myself to make the giver think that their gift wasn’t appreciated. I may not like the book but always appreciated the thought‚
Some book stores, and I’ve seen this at Barnes & Noble, have section for “gift books” that I firmly believe are destined never to be read but the buyer probably doesn’t know that. To them, it “looks like a nice book” but maybe not so much by the recipient. But some gift books are designed to be read and in some, many or all for of the remaining Book Club posts between now and the holidays I plan to introduce you to a few, starting with…
Gift Book of the Week
It probably helps if the recipient of Jaguar Century,100 Years of Automotive Excellence by Giles Chapman is a fan of classic English cars and the Jaguar marque in particular. Since I am, this gift book scores a direct bulls-eye.
This is a big, beautiful, well-designed book that is a delight to look at and read. The informative text is enhanced by amazing images featuring highlights of the marque’s history. Some of these historical images are priceless, such as the photograph of Jaguar co-founder Sir William Lyons, when he was probably just Billy Lyons astride a Harley Davidson in the Swallow Sidecars era of the company.
The quality of the book’s photographs and their reproduction on high quality paper enhance the reading experience. The non-vintage car photo of now-vintage cars are extraordinary. I had never seen an image of a 1928 Austin Swallow sedan but the photograph made me want to run out and find one at an auction. The history of the mark is intriguing; I did not know Lyons had a partner—Williamson Walmsley, a fellow motorcycle enthusiast who later decided to not be part of taking the company public and Lyons bought him out to begin his reign with the long-hooded SS models. In 1945 the name of the company was changed to Jaguar Cars Ltd, and a new era began.This comes to a head in Chapter Six—Sports Car Genius. The photographs in the section alone are worth the price of the book.
And then we move onto the saloons with a chapter entitled Grace, Space and Pace that introduces the world and the reader to the Jaguar Mark VII before moving onto the C and D-type endurance racers that for many showed us to what Jaguar cars could do one the track and made us want to drive them on the street. This is a brief chapter but could have been a book on its own and leads us to the Sports sedans from the Mark I to the classic S-type that I’ve always wanted to own. The E-type gets its own chapter—The Most Beautiful Car—and i think the series 1 and 1.5 E-types are and were the most beautiful automobiles ever built. Even Enzo Ferrari agreed with than.
As Jaguar became even more diversified it moved into many directions with many different car models; This is all brought to the surface beginning in Chapter Eleven. And like the rest of the book, these chapters are brief, in part because that’s a lot of history to jam into 224 pages to make it both readable and affordable. The chapter on the XJ-6 is a tribute to what I think are the last beautifully designed Jaguar salooons but there is occasional hyperbole here by including the XJ-S (and I’m speaking as a former owner) in a chapter entitled The World Beaters. (I’m not sure the author is familiar with the American term “beater” when applied to cars.)
As we head into the back of the book there is some diversion into the beginnings of another beautiful Jaguar—The XJ220. The remainder of the book looks at the company’s more recent history with Ford’s ownership and some of the interesting cars that were produced during that time and well as Tata’s takeover that included the production of SUV’s that are probably the best looking and best appointed vehicles in their class. To paraphrase Chili Palmer, they are “the Jaguars of SUV’s.” The later chapters look at the future, concept cars, and electrification and if any of that bothers you, if you are a died-in-the-Wilton-wool Anglophile you can stop reading at the end of chapter 16. Completists and people wondering what comes next for this storied marque should plow onto the end—the chapters are, after all, brief.
This lushly printed and exquisitely designed book is, in my way of thinking and having owned two Jaguar automobiles, a loving look at one of the most legendary British marques in the history of the automobile. If you have a friend who likes cars they will like this book. If you have a friend who likes Jaguar automobiles, they will love receiving this book as a gift.
- Publisher : Motorbooks
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 076036866X
- ISBN-13: 978-0760368664
- Item Weight: 4.68 pounds
- Dimensions: 10.35 x 1.4 x 12.75 inches
- Price: $53.27 Prime members