A Race with Love and Death, Richard Williams
A Race with Love and Death, Richard Williams
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A Race with Love and Death
The Story of Richard Seaman

Author: Richard Williams

Narrator: Richard Williams

Unabridged: 12 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/19/2020

Synopsis

'A tragic age and a tragic character, both seemingly compelled to destroy themselves...a chilling reminder of how little control we have over our fates' Damon Hill
'One of the greatest motor racing stories' Nick Mason
'Timely, vivid and enthralling … it’s unputdownable’ Miranda Seymour, author of The Bugatti Queen

Dick Seaman was the archetypal dashing motorsport hero of the 1930s, the first Englishman to win a race for Mercedes-Benz and the last Grand Prix driver to die at the wheel before the outbreak of the Second World War. 
 
Award-winning author Richard Williams reveals the remarkable but now forgotten story of a driver whose battles against the leading figures of motor racing's golden age inspired the post-war generation of British champions. The son of wealthy parents, educated at Rugby and Cambridge, Seaman grew up in a privileged world of house parties, jazz and fast cars. But motor racing was no mere hobby: it became such an obsession that he dropped out of university to pursue his ambitions, squeezing money out of his parents to buy better cars. When he was offered a contract with the world-beating, state-sponsored Mercedes team in 1937, he signed up despite the growing political tensions between Britain and Germany. A year later, he celebrated victory in the German Grand Prix with the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of the founder of BMW. Their wedding that summer would force a split with his family, a costly rift that had not been closed six months later when he crashed in the rain while leading at Spa, dying with his divided loyalties seemingly unresolved. He was just 26 years old.

A Race with Love and Death is a gripping tale of speed, romance and tragedy. Set in an era of rising tensions, where the urge to live each moment to the full never seemed more important, it is a richly evocative story that grips from first to last. 

About Richard Williams

Richard Williams was the chief sportswriter of the Guardian from 1995 to 2012, having previously worked for The Times and the Independent. He was the original presenter of BBC2's The Old Grey Whistle Test and was the artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Festival from 2015-17. Among his previous books are The Death of Ayrton Senna (1995), Racers (1997), Enzo Ferrari: A Life (2002) and The Last Road Race (2004). A Race with Love and Death is his most recent publication (Simon & Schuster, 2020).

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben

Took me back to an era of history which fascinated and intrigued me. Despite being celebrated by the nazis and driving a car which was developed by their funding, Richard Seaman and his German wife were rather opposed to the regime. Recommend to anyone with an interest in historic motor racing.......more

Goodreads review by Reece

An often forgotten great racing driver, this book is a window into the life of a grand prix driver of the 1930s, and further to this a fly-on-the-wall insight into one of the two symbolic teams of Nazi Germany, offering a humanising account of how they went racing.......more

Goodreads review by Peter

Very well researched and an excellent read. Whilst the author sourced some of his information from the 1941 book "Dick Seaman" by HRH Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand, a contemporary and rival (he funded Bira's racing), his research was more in depth, correcting at least one error that I detecte......more

Goodreads review by Ann

My spouse follows auto racing history. I follow history, so I decided to read this book that follows Richard Seaman, Britain's first great Grand Prix Driver from his youth to his death in 1939. He was handsome, charming, and very photogenic. For race car fans, there is more than enough detail on dri......more

Quotes

'Timely, vivid and enthralling in its close-up view of a world of heroes, Richard Williams’ splendid book corrects the many myths that cling to Dick Seaman’s name. Was he buried sitting upright in the car in which he died? Did his overbearing English mother light up the family’s ancestral home to guide Nazi pilots through the night? Williams has found a subject worthy of his rare combination of technical knowledge with compelling story-telling. It’s unputdownable.' 

'One of the greatest motor racing stories, about one of the greatest but least celebrated British drivers from an era that produced perhaps the most awesome - certainly the most fearsome - racing cars of all time, the original Silver Arrows.'

'A fascinating story...as you'd expect from one of the finest sports writers of our lifetime, Williams advances our understanding of the subject by elegantly weaving a narrative that combines the Boy's Own derring-do of a between-the-wars hero with the suffocatingly stuffy expectations of British society...Gives you all the detail a purist would want from a racing biography, but it's also an easy-to-read yet fascinating social documentary of the era.

'A tragic age and a tragic character, both seemingly compelled to destroy themselves...a chilling reminder of how little control we have over our fates'

'To read A Race with Love and Death...is to smell the petrol that frequently caused conflagrations as cars burst into flame from leaks and collisions. Williams is the right man to tell [Seaman's story] - a fine sports writer.'

'Readers...will be familiar with the elegance of his prose and the breadth of his interests and expertise. All are on show here.'

‘Richard Williams has written wonderful books…but this latest one tops them all for drama, insight and casting fresh light on old events.’

‘The gifted sports writer – Richard Williams recounts Seaman’s story vividly and with aplomb, ably calculating the spirit of the age.’ 

‘The story of ‘Britain’s First Great Grand Prix Driver’ is expertly chronicled in A Race with Love and Death as journalist Richard Williams re-evaluates the speedster’s life and legacy.’ 

'Richard Williams’ charming account of Seaman’s life, will help...remind others of a time in Grand Prix racing when with grievous regularity...the fast died young and died often.'

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