Land Rover

There are cars designed to glide effortlessly along immaculate motorways, cars built to impress the neighbours, and cars whose principal achievement is getting their occupants from one end of a supermarket car park to the other. And then there is the Land Rover, a vehicle apparently conceived on the understanding that roads were an unnecessary luxury and comfort a dangerous sign of weakness.

In Land Rover (1997), motoring historian James Taylor celebrates one of Britain’s most enduring contributions to the art of going somewhere difficult, getting thoroughly muddy and returning home with a story involving a broken axle, several sheep and a man called Brian. Published by Greenwich Editions, this illustrated volume explores the remarkable history of the Land Rover, from its utilitarian beginnings as a post-war agricultural workhorse to its evolution into a motoring institution.

The original Land Rover was not so much designed as assembled around a series of uncompromising principles: it should be tough, practical, repairable and capable of crossing terrain that would cause an ordinary saloon car to surrender immediately. Refinements such as soundproofing, comfortable seating and effective heating were evidently regarded as suspicious continental extravagances.

Yet that was precisely its appeal. Farmers, explorers, soldiers, emergency services and adventurers all discovered that the Land Rover could accomplish extraordinary things while looking as though it had been constructed in a particularly enthusiastic garden shed. Its distinctive shape became instantly recognisable across the world, from English country lanes to African bush tracks, Australian outback stations and places where the nearest mechanic was several hundred miles away.

Taylor’s book offers an affectionate look at this extraordinary British machine, its development, character and enduring reputation. It is a fitting tribute to a vehicle that somehow managed to become both a symbol of rugged practicality and, eventually, an object of considerable social aspiration. Few vehicles have made the journey from carrying livestock to carrying people who own several properties quite so convincingly.

Condition: Good. This is a pre-owned copy with the sort of general wear one might reasonably expect from a book published in 1997. It has survived considerably longer than some of the vehicles it describes may have managed without attention to their electrics.

Published by Greenwich Editions in 1997. ISBN: 9780862881856.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we firmly believe that a book about Land Rovers needn’t be pristine to be worth owning. Indeed, a little evidence of previous use seems entirely appropriate. After all, nobody ever bought a Land Rover because they were afraid of a few scratches.

An excellent addition to the bookshelf of any Land Rover enthusiast, classic vehicle admirer or person who believes that four-wheel drive is not merely a mechanical arrangement but a perfectly reasonable excuse to disappear into a field for the weekend.

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