"Cars That Time Forgot"

[sierraman]

They can't be short of a bob or two when you look what they spend restoring the cars.

[Felly Magic]

I have 2 Giles Chapman books, Mad Cars & Worst Cars, I find them both quite entertaining reads, and he does make arguments for and against in both books. 

[Ghosty]

You could buy AMC Pacers here?

[egg]

Sick.

 

[dollywobbler]

Maybe it's just me then, but they read to me like an MSN Cars feature. Still, it's better than a Quentin Willson book.

 

As for whether today's writers earn loads, no. They don't. Probably the odd perk and freebie here and there, but it's not a good way to earn a living really. Some publishers still know how to pay good money, but all I can say is that it's a good job I decided not to have children. I'd need a proper job to pay for them.

[AMC Rebel]

You could buy AMC Pacers here?

Yup, there was a RHD conversion too.  Chain drive behind the dashboard.

 

As for whether today's writers earn loads, no. They don't. Probably the odd perk and freebie here and there, but it's not a good way to earn a living really. Some publishers still know how to pay good money, but all I can say is that it's a good job I decided not to have children. I'd need a proper job to pay for them.

 

As I suspected - and that's a shame.  Yet another job where everyone else thinks they can do it eh? The consolation (if there is one) is the chance of a long career - as long as you can still see, you can carry on until you drop I guess - I am still reading Ten Connolly's stuff - he must be a million years old.  He's clearly not wealthy, but he's still plugging away. 

[AMC Rebel]

They can't be short of a bob or two when you look what they spend restoring the cars.

Hmm - I have often wondered how that all works - I assume (almost certainly wrongly) the publishers pay for the workshop at least?

 

I probably shouldn't speculate on people's personal circumstances but after a bit started to suspect Sam Glover must be of independent means to do all the stuff he does.  Probably bollocks like most of my musings.

[dollywobbler]

Quite a few writers have other sources of income - or partners with a well-paid proper job... I'm not going to go into details, but a lot of writers (and increasingly editors) are freelance, which leaves time for other jobs. I'm not going to complain, because I'm very happy with things at the moment. It is very much a job you do for the love of it rather than to be rich and famous though. Sadly, I think publishers realise that.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Mr Chapmans words where also put into 'cars we loved in the 1960's',  'cars we loved in the 1970's' and  'cars we loved in the 1980's'. All of which are within reach of my PC seat.

In these books at least, he writes very fairly about the pros and cons of each model with some nice social history added in as well.

 

Good books if you seem them going cheap.

[dugong]

I can confirm I am brassic and therefore not clarkson. 

[Alusilber]

I often wonder how modern day journos on stuff like Practical Classics make any money - maybe it's OK, but I always imagine it as a tricky job with terrible pay.

 

T'internet and ebooks has put paid to a lot of stuff - those Ian Allen books of Aircraft types for example.

 

I get the impression pretty much all the "staff" on PC have at least one other day job, or are semi-retired freelancer types.  Even the assistant editor also works as a radio producer!

[martc]

So "Ed Reardons Week" is a serious documentry rather than a Radio 4 sit com?

[Felly Magic]

Cuntson came from a wealthy background, and his old schoolmate Andy Willman got him in at the BBC, before that he was just a shite motoring hack living off mummy and daddy's fortune. 

[rml2345]

"Time Forgot" is one of the better attempts at a book full of what "The Public" would call shit cars and they are all treated pretty fairly considering. Car books may be on the decline but publishers like Venture and Ian Allan are still churning out books on other stuff pretty frequently.

[dugong]

Cuntson came from a wealthy background, and his old schoolmate Andy Willman got him in at the BBC, before that he was just a shite motoring hack living off mummy and daddy's fortune. 

Well, all us cockwombles have cash exploding out of our pores; just last week I wiped my arse with a £50 note. 

 

Giles is even handed in the stuff he writes - and that book filled in a few gaps in my knowledge back in the day - said the cockwomble closing ranks. 

[mercrocker]

I hand the odd bit of motoring scribble in to a (non-motoring) magazine once a month.   Never been paid for it - just a free sub.   The thought of writing a book for which I would earn no money and only guarantee the sting of criticism does not appeal to me at all - nice though it would be to "leave" something for posterity.

 

I can think of at least two significant muttering rotters who's other halves were of monied background but not going to name them publicly.   As for career longevity you only have to consider the likes of Bill Boddy and Harold Hastings.

 

Its easy to knock anybody in the public domain based on an assumption of their character but generally speaking the books that stay longest on my shelves are written by people who share their opinion - often vociferously and against my own belief, but sometimes in an amusing way.    I still laugh at some of the things Motor Sport published 65 years ago and the withering phrases of Michael Sedgwick (A book on Vauxhall?   Sheer pornography!)

[RoadworkUK]

There are some genuinely appalling publications in this vein, though. Chief among them is this.
 

 

It's basically a book for idiots, written by an idiot. With a foreword provided by somebody ill-qualified to comment and who really should have known better.
 

Sadly, as the book exists on the very periphery of credibility most of the Amazon reviews for it are of the "LOL ITS FUNNY LoOK at THeh weerid cars" variety, and the only half-sensible review is by The Spectator, of all things.

 

"If anything in this book is truly bizarre in the half-barbaric sense, it is not a single car but the author’s gratuitous jeering at his victims, his refusal to recognise that there might be merit, foresight, even genius in their madness."

 

It's just shit.

[Eddie Honda]

"If anything in this book is truly bizarre in the half-barbaric sense, it is not a single car but the author’s gratuitous jeering at his victims, his refusal to recognise that there might be merit, foresight, even genius in their madness."

That'll be Brian Sewell then.

[sierraman]

As people have said some of the cars were truly shit. The Dacia Denem for example. But that's why I like them!

[inconsistant]

That 'worst cars ever sold in Britain' book is in my pile of stuff to charity shop. If anyone wants it for the cost of postage ill happily pass it on.

 

edit:

 

I think I decided to bin it in disgust at the gorgeous MG Meaestro on the cover.

 

[inconsistant]

Also have this one if anyone wants it, with its focus on speed it is ACTUALLY about the worst cars ever sold:

 

[Brodders]

Is there now going to be an Autoshite trend of advertising books in front of kitchen appliances?

[23rdian]

I haz the OP's book too

[dugong]

I am so wealthy I go to laundrettes. Sometimes they let me in. 

[Richard]

Dugong, yesterday.