The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story, Part 1: The First Forty Years

by Peter Pugh

The Magic of a Name tells the story of the first 40 years of Britain’s most prestigious manufacturer - Rolls-Royce.

Beginning with the historic meeting in 1904 of Henry Royce and the Honourable C.S. Rolls, and the birth in 1906 of the legendary Silver Ghost, Peter Pugh tells a story of genius, skill, hard work and dedication which gave the world cars and aero engines unrivalled in their excellence.

In 1915, 100 years ago, the pair produced their first aero engine, the Eagle which along with the Hawk, Falcon and Condor proved themselves in battle in the First World War. In the Second the totemic Merlin was installed in the Spitfire and built in a race against time in 1940 to help win the Battle of Britain.

With unrivalled access to the company’s archives, Peter Pugh’s history is a unique portrait of both an iconic name and of British industry at its best.

Genres: Business, Biography, History

572 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 1996

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're expecting a scintillating narrative to keep the pages turning, then replace this book with something lighter. Pugh may have read all the books in the bibliography, maybe even knows them rote fashion, because his book is almost more citations than original commentary. That problem is compounded by the text being quite small, and even smaller still for the citations, which just makes it hard to read.

He got off to a bad start for me by explaining in tedious detail why he had decided to use the name of another tome on the same subject as his subtitle, and then kept quoting great slabs of it to fill out his pages. The next complaint I have is that the material is presented in a jumbled fashion, jumping back and forth between the years and from people to people. Speaking of people, the book starts out describing the main characters, Royce and Rolls, and others I had never hear of, but in doing so, set the whole fashion for the book: namely tell one man's story and all the supporting evidence, then tell another's, which naturally includes all the previous information, and on and on. Having said that, I would have to assume that he is setting out to create the definitive volume on the subject of RR, and for an aficionado, he may well have done it.

The third fault i find with this book is that from time to time he interjects into the tsunami of facts and quotes with what I can only suppose is his own original take on a subject, but which he leaves totally unsupported. The best example is when he describes Goering watching the flames of London as it burns from his (and in Pugh's estimation, wrongly directed) bombs, and , I assume again, trying to channel Nero watching as Rome burned, from the cliffs of Calais. Pugh steps up and intones in the most assured manner that Goering may have enjoyed the sight, but had no idea that he had just lost the war (WWII).

How can he make such a statement? He backs it up later with a similar quip that the Germans knew the war was lost when British planes were seen over Paris or some such drivel.

Why did I read it all the way to the end, only skipping the bibliography and the raft of biographies that he kindly enclosed. In the paraphrased words of some unknown, reading his book was like war: long tracts of interminable boredom interspersed with the occasional gem of knowledge.

[Ridzwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rolls-Royce - The Magic of a Name" is a robustly researched compendium that illustrates the first forty years of what is evidently the most recognised name in engines and automobiles. It details the journeys, and friendship of two men with remarkably different characters, Henry Royce and Charles Rolls, and how both came together despite these dissimilarities, to conceive the most prestigious British brand today. Of particular interest is the role that Rolls-Royce played in British aviation history, and how instrumental its engines were in pivotal air battles of the Second World War.

[Dakshin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The magic of a name allured me to check if this book explores the brand in detail. It does from a historical perspective though. I was expecting more on the lines of the brand pull which I shouldn't have since the blurb clearly suggests the tracing back of the birth of the brand. This should interest if you are keen to know about the technical notes that rev this famous engine, and of course if you have plenty of time.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for the actual physical books itself, the three-book set. Excellent history, a little bit too exhaustive and part of a 3 book set with black slipcover with the rr on it, each book with different color dustjackets. they each have a lot of pictures but it is way more reading than pictures which is fine. The three books while covering the cars is more on the industrial side. Not a fan that the author wrote a book on Keynes or that RR did business and licensing with China and Soviet States among others. The book is a sympathetic look at the different Rolls-Royce business units, more corporate biography than anything else. He mentions the Militant Unions which sadly brought GB and Most of it's once great industrial might to naught but sadly he does not criticize them.I do not like the fact rolls would be nationalized, broken up and ultimately sold to nonbritish interests.

[Olafs Bērziņš · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seemed like a highly technical and detailed book which had no illustrations and pictures. Chapters about cars and aero works, about engines and chassis would have greatly benefited from illustrations. This is the first book of three. Worth reading? Well, it gives an understanding on how Rolls-Royce came to be and how it operated and contributed in both World Wars.

[Harish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring

[Peter]

So the edition in the possession of this reviewer has 340 pages.

The difficulties around Goldman Sachs' activities described on p117 need to be addressed at/in an appropriate time/setting.