- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Crappy Old Books, Barry, United KingdomCrappy Old Books
AbeBooks seller since February 6, 2025
Condition: Used - Good
£ 4.50
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Behold: The Observer?s Book of Automobiles (1968) by L. A. Manwaring ? a pocket-sized time machine from the era when cars had chrome moustaches, names like Cortina and Zephyr , and the natural habitat of the British motorist was a lay-by with a thermos and quiet despair. This is not a book for people who merely like cars. This is a book for people who feel a faint, inexplicable thrill at the phrase ?engine capacity? , who believe a proper automobile should have a real grille you could lean your personality on , and who consider spotting a Morris Oxford in the wild to be basically the same as seeing a rare bird. It?s the Observer?s formula at its finest: concise, authoritative, and oddly soothing ? as if the entire, complicated world can be neatly catalogued into tidy little facts and silhouettes you can identify before your tea goes cold. Inside you?ll find a glorious parade of mid-century motoring ambition: sensible saloons, dashing sports cars, foreign curiosities, and those delightfully optimistic designs that assumed the future would be powered by confidence, petrol, and a total absence of health-and-safety paperwork. Each entry is like a tiny obituary for a model range: its measurements, its mechanical virtues, its quiet quirks ? all delivered with the calm certainty of a time when an ?Observer? could simply observe and not be forced to update a spreadsheet. And because it?s 1968, the subtext is always: ?Yes, you can own a car. No, it won?t start in winter. Yes, it will rust. But you will look magnificent while being late.? Condition-wise: this copy is Good , and in Crappy Old Books terms that means it?s properly usable, properly readable, and properly ready to be shoved in a glovebox like it was born to be. The dust jacket is worn (as per your scan) ? which is honestly the most authentic thing it could do. A pristine dust jacket on a car book feels suspicious, like someone bought it purely for interior design purposes and never once argued about carburettors. A worn jacket says this book has seen things . The book itself is sound , which is what you want: a sturdy little manual of motoring memory, built to outlast the vehicles it documents. Perfect for: Anyone who can?t pass an Austin without saying ?they don?t make ?em like that anymore? (even if they absolutely did) The nostalgic tinkerer who loves a car that comes with ?character? (and, inevitably, leaks) People who collect Observer?s Books the way others collect rare stamps, except this one smells faintly of petrol dreams In short: a charming, practical, slightly smug pocket encyclopedia of the road ? back when the road was narrower, the indicators were optional, and every journey contained at least one unscheduled stop to ?have a look at it.? From Crappy Old Books , proudly supplying the past in portable form ? dust jacket a bit battle-worn, book solid, and the automobiles within forever gleaming in the amber of 1968.…
Seller Inventory # 5734
Bibliographic details
- Title
- The Observers Book of Automobiles
- Author
- LA Manwaring
- Publisher
- Frederick Warne
- Publication year
- 1968
- Condition
- Good
- Dust jacket
- Dust Jacket Included
- Binding
- Hardback
Crappy Old Books
Barry, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since February 6, 2025
Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
| Item | 14 to 45 business days | 5 to 10 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 20.05 | £ 26.85 |
Payment methods
Store description
Crappy Old Books aims to be the online version of our much endangered high street second hand book stores. Here you will find all sorts of junk that you just couldnt imagine. Crappy Old Books also aims to provide all of these books at great rates. The site was concieved on Monday 23rd Novemeber 2009, and is slowly growing. Hopefully over years it'll have much more to offer and will be a joy to browse through, just like our musty second hand book stores of yore.
Specialty
Regular booksSeller's business information
Crappy Old Books
United Kingdom
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