Book of the month
Colin Chapman: the Biography
GERARD ‘JABBY’ CROMBAC, FREDERICK REGINALD BUSHELL & WILLIAM TAYLOR, Coterie Press, £125, ISBN 978 1 902351 74 2
More than 40 years after the passing of Lotus founder Colin Chapman from a heart attack, it would be extremely difficult for any biographer to come up with a significantly new account of his remarkable life. Rather cleverly, therefore, publisher William Taylor has taken a pre-existing biography – the one written by Jabby Crombac in the early 1980s – and married it up with other recollections, notably from Lotus accountant Fred Bushell. Then, by combining the words with a fantastic collection of period imagery, and using bold design – hat tip here to Violet Cruz – he’s been able to offer a hefty two-volume slipcased set that really does come across as something genuinely new.
Volume 1 tells Chapman’s story from
