Product Description

Alan Clark was passionate about cars from an early age. He bought his first car - a secondhand 6.5 litre Bentley - while still a schoolboy at Eton and without a driving licence. By the time he was 24 he had been banned from driving three times, not only for speeding but in one instance for driving an open Buick Roadster with a girl on his lap. He dealt in 'classic' and vintage cars and soon built up an impressive stable of his own. One of his first published pieces of journalism appeared in the US magazine, Road and Track, for which he was briefly UK correspondent. BACK FIRE, the title of a column he wrote in Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine, ran for three years until his death in September 1999. Alan Clark's elder son, James Clark - who has inherited his father's motoring enthusiasms - provides a Prologue; Alan Clark's widow Jane writes a moving Afterword.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55373 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Back Fire is a posthumous collection of Clark's columns for the magazine Classic Cars and other journals along with a few extracts from the infamous diaries.

If Mr Toad hadn't predated Alan Clark by some 21 years--The Wind in the Willows was published in 1908 and Clark born in 1929--you could make a good case for Clark's having been the model for Kenneth Grahame's daredevil, outrageous but loveable rogue. Conservative MP, historian, man about town, notorious womaniser--and at the same time fiercely loyal husband and father--Clark, who died in 1999, was the son of Lord (Kenneth) Clark, the art historian and broadcaster. He bought his first car, a six-and-a-half litre vintage Bentley, while he was still at Eton and only 17--it was typical of the stylish flamboyance he soon made his trademark.

Many a Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Buick and Chevrolet followed. So did old Citroens, a VW Beetle and latterly a beloved and "totally reliable" Discovery. He was a collector, par excellence, who was addicted to the buying and selling of cars all his adult life. Every garage and enclosed space at Saltwood Castle, the family home in Kent, remains full of Clark's cars. Clark's son James writes in Back Fire that "Outside the family, I truly believe, cars were my father's greatest love". But he didn't approve of over-enthusiastic restoration. When he drove his 1920 Silver Ghost, of which there is a photograph in Back Fire on the 1993 Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Alpine Commemorative Run, a fellow competitor remarked, to Clark's amusement, that "if he can't afford to maintain his car properly he shouldn't be allowed on the event".

Whatever else Clark was or wasn't he was never dull and he was certainly a writer. "What do we want a classic car for? Showing off, of course. Nothing wrong with that; they are more idiosyncratic than beach jewellery." The prose hums along as expertly as the cars. --Susan Elkin

About the Author
Alan Clark, educated at Eton and Oxford, read for the Bar but did not practise. Tory MP for Plymouth Sutton 1972-1992; Kensington and Chelsea, 1997-99. Various junior ministerial appointments in the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments of the 1980s. Best-known for his Diaries (three vols) which The Times placed in the Samuel Pepys class. They were filmed by teh BBC with John Hurt as Clark and Jenny Agutter as Jane Clark. Alan Clark died in 1999.

Customer Reviews

Excellent, but not for everyone
Having read AC's diaries, one knows what to expect. Utterly honest and open, but playing to the gallery. But this isn't a book for the non enthusiast really, heaven for the Clark afficionado who loves old cars but a bit too specialist for others. Being of the first category, I read it in two sittings and enjoyed it immensely.

A fun but flawed read - one for the fans
Back Fire provoked very mixed feelings, which is a shame. Clark's own columns and diary snippets are full of his enthusiasm for cars - proper cars that is - and motoring in general, and if you're like-minded they're a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, like many books of newspaper and magazine writings it's got an air of being cobbled together. The columns are very much a product of their various times - but there's rarely an indication of when and where they were first published. Their brief intros give only a bland context and some are marred by sloppy editing.

If you're a Clark completist it's essential; if you love cars it's an entertaining read. But ultimately most of these writings were intended to be ephemeral and might be better read in dusty back issues of the magazines they first appeared in. Having read Back Fire in an afternoon I doubt I'll do more than dip into it again.