Kidnap of the Flying Lady: How Germany Captured Both Rolls-Royce and Bentley

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, Compelling, Important
Review: Walk into the local supermart of bookstores, leaf through the "business" section and within five minutes know the sum total of five best sellers. The "transportation" shelves typically offer little better: business histories that read like the old notes of a reporter or minutiae on a historical marque.

Then comes Richard Feast, with his compelling saga of the world's most revered automotive name, its trials and (sometimes) self-inflicted tribulations, linked carefully and accurately to the industry around it and to the particular travails of British industry in the second half of the 20th Century. Filled with first-rate reportage and wonderful characters, it is a wonderfully spun, brilliantly paced history that no doubt will become a reference work for generations of car lovers and business watchers.