Touch Wood!

Here are the memoirs of Duncan Hamilton. For many years the story of this extraordinary man has been awaited and now at last it is here. Things happen to Duncan! Sometimes he makes them happen, but often they just occur: whether flying in the Fleet Air Arm or racing at Le Mans with Jaguar, he attracts remarkable situations, just as a starlet attracts wolf-whistles. He is perhaps as well known for his personality as for his undoubted ability as a motor-racing driver. He is one of the few survivors of the immediate post-war group of racing drivers and his own survival is due as much to his extraordinary durability as to his great skill. Having cut his racing teeth on such pre-war cars as an R-Type M.G., Bugatti Type 35B and Maserati 6CM, Duncan graduated to one of the immortal Lago-Talbot Grand Prix cars which he owned and entered himself — and subsequently mislaid in a French coal-hole. In all, Duncan Hamilton competed in no fewer than nine of those great Le Mans endurance classics, both as a works driver for Healey, Jaguar and Ferrari, and as the outstanding private owner/driver of his own D Type Jaguar. It is a life of remarkable fullness that Duncan Hamilton describes, and although much of it is serious, it is packed with gaiety and excitement and there is never a dull moment. Dullness is about the only thing which cannot happen when Duncan is around! Illustrated with 58 photographs that capture the world of Duncan Hamilton.