Description

Memory Lanes …the early years. (ISBN 978-0-9558074-5-9)

This book has been reprinted several times and is now in the new hard-back format with higher quality picture reproduction.  The latest update and print run was in August 2021.   Sadly now sold out

Memory Lanes …the early years covers the Motoring News Rally Championship during the years 1966 to 1969.

Some 470 pages pages in length it contains details of every MN rally held during that period and the text is accompanied by well over 200 black and white photographs many of which have never been seen before.  The majority of these rally reports are accompanied by entry lists and full results, while many include full route details.

This was an era when Motoring News rallies were contested by top drivers including Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Fall, Vic Elford and Roy Fidler plus many top navigators such as John Davenport, Martin Holmes, David Stone, John Brown, Neil Wilson, Don Barrow and many others who later went on to International success as co-drivers.  It was an era when a weekend rally such as the 1966 Shunpiker contained a 600 mile route and others such as the Bolton Rally the same year involved a 400 mile route with multiple timed to the minute sections and 100 miles of forest stages.

It saw the early career successes of Jimmy Bullough/Don Barrow and Malcolm Gibbs/Randal Morgan and entry into the Championship of Will Sparrow/Nigel Raeburn and George Hill/Keith Wood, two crews who were to play such a major part in the Championship in years to come.

Towards the end of the period covered, the Ford Escort Twin Cam arguably became the car of choice for Motoring News competitors alongside the ubiquitous Cooper S.  However Memory Lanes also details the many other cars involved in the Championship in this period including the Cortina GT, Triumph 2000 and 2500, Rover 2000, Lancia Fulvia, Imp, Sprite, 105E and GT Anglias, Healey 3000, Volvo 122S, Sunbeam Rapier, Saab 60 and 90, Spitfire, Triumph Vitesse and many others.  It was a period of change.

Additional sections by Don Barrow, Martin Holmes, John Brown and Peter Valentine are included together with further general sections, one such “highlighting” ladies involved in the Championship.  With a Foreword by Stuart Turner this is an ideal companion to Memory Lanes …revisited.

These are some of the comments made by recipients of Memory Lanes …the early years over the years since it was first released::

Jonathan Pulleyn:  The book has arrived.  Thank you.  What a beautiful book!  I have only had the chance to flick quickly through, but I am delighted with it.  I hadn’t realised it was a hard back.  Thank you for signing it too.  Really looking forward to reading it now.

Patricia Kasehagen Webb (Mini Cooper register, Scotland):  What a fabulous book – just got mine today.? I am just purchasing another for someone for Christmas.

Will Malkin (Malkin Motorsport):  The Memory Lanes series of books are amongst my all time favourite motorsport books, road rallying is seen to be the pinnacle of motorsport in our house!

John Brown:  Peter, I have now completed my first quick read of your latest magnum opus and I have to congratulate you on an excellent piece of work to which I am pleased and proud to have been able to make a small contribution.  I hope it sells as well as it deserves.

Motorsport Monday:  45 years ago remembered…  Another remarkable book has just been published detailing British rally sport in the late sixties.

Stuart Gray:  I have at last got round to reading, not just dipping into, Memory Lanes …the early years.  It’s such a great book with so many records like starting lists, results, etc., that it really jogs the memory.

Jim Gavin (ex. co-owner, Supersport)  Peter, the book is SUPERB!  I had no idea that it would be so full of facts and superbly produced.  A stunning effort.  WELL DONE!

Gerry Ryan:  I’ve just finished reading your book.  What memories it rekindles.  What fun we had in those days.? Weren’t we so lucky?  I didn’t realise I’d done so much.  Very well written and put together.

John Arnold:  Just to say how much I am enjoying the book, have not put it down since a week last Friday!  These were times we will never see again.

Peter Callow:  Your book arrived here in New Zealand today – and its magnificent!  Congratulations on a wonderful achievment, together with the companion volume.  A dip into it over lunch today was enthralling, stirring memories and recalling past incidents, such as the excitement of discovering the short cut on Abergwesyn – Tregaron.  I’m looking forward to many treats ahead.  I can only say an enormous thankyou for enabling me to relive events from such an intensely exciting time of my life.

Paul Gray:  A very big thank you, my copy has just arrived and it looks like the other two, fantastic.

Nigel Raeburn: My copy arrived yesterday.  Early pickings of it have revived long forgotten memories of some events I had completely forgotten about!!  A great read.

Nigel Raeburn (Review for HRCR NW Region Newsletter & Knutsford and District MC bulletin).  A highly recommended book for anyone who was there – as competitor, organiser, marshal or spectator – and equally for those who want to know what a golden period for rallying was really like.? It’s not cheap at £50 but it’s good value with over 450 pages and hundreds of photos.

Phil Senior:  Mine arrived this pm, have only just opened it….nothing else will be done for the rest of the day.  ’67 Morecambe looked interesting – 550 mile route in a night and day with 135 stage miles……

Huw Davies:  Your book is fantastic.   I must say your efforts are well rewarded by the quality and content.  I know the amount of work that goes into preparing these books.  It is fantastic to re-live such wonderful days of road rallying by reading yours, we will never see these days again.  Competitors and enthusiasts of today will never realise what they have missed.  Having had a brief taste of the book tonight I will thoroughly enjoy reading it in the comfort of my house, in sociable hours accompanied by a glass of wine.

Fred Gallagher:  A wonderful book that I keep picking up, usually with a map in hand to plot the devious routes of the past.  I’m already looking forward to the next one!

Don Barrow:  When Peter asked me to write the introduction for his second book on the MN rally championship I was delighted to do so and it set me thinking back to those days and some of those epic battles that were so much a part of this rally series. I have now read the complete book and am so glad I was “volunteered”! The book covers the period when I was fortunate to have had many successes, particularly with Jim Bullough, and it fills in so many memories which over the course of the years I have to confess I had long forgotten. A marvellous history of those EPIC days.  Nice touch to have a section on ladies involved in the Championship. They are often forgotten in what many perceive to be an all-male sport. Also forgotten are the people behind the scenes. I certainly could not have gone rallying without the full support of my wife Gill and the tolerence of Vivienne and Richard, my children.  Ten years of regular weekend rallying is a lot to “support”!!

Don Griffiths:  A wonderful read which brought back many forgotten memories of this golden age of British rallying.  Thank you Peter for all your hard work.

Greg Harrond:  Mine’s here!!!!  Looks fantastic!!!  Get a copy people.  Great book, I’m off to dive into it.

Norman Salt:  Many many thanks for the signed copy received lunchtime today.  I must congratulate you on a splendid piece of work which, after a quick “browse”, has already brought back to mind events that I had forgotten about.

Autosport:  There are niche books, and then there is this: Peter Robinson’s latest tome on the Motoring News Rally Championship 1966 – 1969.  It’s an exhaustive, 460-page black-and-white account of an amazing era when rallies were a huge test of endurance and adventure.  For diehard fans of Minis, Escorts, Anglias and Cortina GTs only.

Philip Young (Endurance Rally Association):  I have just got a copy and am reviewing this for the Christmas issue of Old-Stager.? It looks absolutely fantastic.? Tremendous amount of detail here, old route notes in particular are fascinating, results, photos, anecdotes, press reports….what a tremendous labour of love this must have been.? A tremendous insight into a scene that can never be revived.? I’m loving it.? The 1966 Sharp rally in Kent is most amusing.