The Land Rover Story

Great background info and practical info also.

Great info on the evolution of classic trucks.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly but the art direction could have been a tad better. Having said that, getting any book published is quite an achievement.

was not allowed to have it till xmas day present from the wife but once open excellent read finished it in a day

I have never owned a Land Rover, nor aspired to one, but as a resident of Solihull I am interested in the local context, the Lode Lane plant being one of the Borough’s major employers. In 2018, Solihull celebrated 70 years of Land Rover with a display in the town centre. Author Dave Phillips, the former editor of Land Rover Monthly, knows his subject well and tells the story with some affection and also some humour. This is no academic treatise but all the better for it. There are many fascinating insights and a key feature of the book is the political and cultural backdrop which helps explain the appeal of Land Rover but leaves the reader marvelling that the brand has survived for more than 70 years. The backdrop is the post-war history of Britain’s motorsport industry with Land Rover passed around as a sweetener to offset unprofitable brands. The various ownerships are detailed including British Leyland, British Aerospace, Ford, BMW (insisting senior management spoke German) and most recently Tata, some more favourable than others. A 9-page timeline is very useful to help slot the story together.

As long as the author is writing about Land Rovers then this is a smashing book. Unfortunately he regularly goes off on long digressions about social and political history, things that have absolutely nothing to do with 4x4 cars. This book needed a strong editor to take the red pen to several long passages. In addition there aren't many photographs and they are all clustered together in the middle of the book. I appreciate this permits better quality paper for photographic reproduction, but with an essentially technical book like this it would often be beneficial to have illustrations amongst the words. Bottom line, this book is mixed, good in parts but plenty of room for improvement.

Bought as a gift; not as many images throughout the book as I would have liked. Person receiving gift was happy with it.