Mini: An Intimate Biography

Description

From its birth in 1959, the Mini grew to become a national treasure and huge success: Princess Margaret owned one, as did Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, the Beatles, Peter Sellers and Marianne Faithfull. Its popularity with women in particular marked it out from the crowd, and sales soared as the car was taken up by the new urban elite and took a starring role in The Italian Job. But there was trouble - the basic Mini sold for less than it cost to produce, and by the early eighties the miracle machine had become a symbol of manufacturing incompetence. The end came in 2000, but a new generation of Mini was just around the corner, and today this motoring pin-up is as iconic as ever. Mini features contributions from those who have known and loved this troubled star, as well as its scornful critics. Full of fascinating facts and vivid stories, this is a fabulous celebration of a living national treasure that reads more like the life story of a wayward royal than a machine.

Christy Campbell is a writer and journalist. He is a former defence correspondent and feature writer for the Sunday Telegraph, which he joined on the eve of the first Gulf War. His book, Phylloxera: How Wine was Saved for the World, won the Glenfiddich-GQ Drink Book of the Year Award 2005.

"Vivid and lively ... this is fascinating stuff" * Telegraph * "A well-researched journalistic effort that is as good at describing the social context of the Mini as it is of the car itself" * The Sunday Times * "A well-informed narrative ... as much social history as industrial, the portrait of an age" * Mail on Sunday *