All But My Life: Stirling Moss Face to Face with Ken W.Purdy

by Ken Purdy, Stirling Moss

An autobiography of Stirling Moss' life reprinted to commemorate his 60th birthday, in which he is noted to have said that he had taken a great deal out of motor racing but that in return he had given it all but his life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 1989

Reviews

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a big fan of motor racing, I enjoyed the conversations between legendary Stirling Moss and author Ken Purdy. It was written in 1962 (I believe) so some things need to be put in context of that time. In a few passages, the author gets a little heavy-handed trying to convey the special and artistic nature of motor racing, but I believe that is simply because of his own personal love of the sport.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is hard to classify. I thought it would be more biographical but it turned out to be more philosophical. It basically covers the time from Moss's career ending crash in May 1962 to May 1963 when he officially retired.
A lot of the book is about Moss's ideas in life, art, racing and other drivers. Very little is about specific races or seasons.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A glossy and journalistic biography of Stirling Moss, probably the greatest racing driver never to win the Formula One world driver's championship.

The book is interesting but it suffers from the fact that it is not written by Moss, nor is it from Moss's perspective. . . .

(I will note here that my version is an early paperback that credits Moss with the copyright and lists him as the primary author.)

. . . .It is written by auto racing scribe Ken Purdy--Purdy is an excellent writer with a good eye for detail. But there are tradeoffs to his role--Purdy is able to dig into details of races that Moss can't provide from the driver's seat, but it's that driver's eye view I really missed. I wanted to learn what made Moss one of the great drivers of his generation, but this is too high-level to provide that seat-of-the-pants feeling.

Good book, but it ultimately left me wanting Moss's racing wisdom in his own words.

[Andrew Ives · Rating 4 out of 5]

(1963 edition) This book is essentially one long interview by American journalist Ken Purdy with Stirling Moss after his mysterious and career-ending Goodwood accident, while Moss recovered in hospital and the period immediately after. At just over 200 pages, this makes for a very easy, enjoyable, page-turning read. A few scattered b&w plates illustrate just how long ago 1963 is. Formula 1 racing back then hardly resembles the races of nowadays, and rather unlike racing drivers nowadays, Moss drove at a high level in all sorts of motorsports, often concurrently, in a variety of vehicles. Purdy's interview is mostly an intelligent one, touching on philosophy at times, pondering why racing drivers live this lifestyle, why they race, the dangers, the rewards, the challenges, how they rate other drivers, their work-life balance. Purdy's style is agreeable enough, rather magazine-like, and perhaps could benefit from a little editing. This book seems a little dated to the modern reader too, with occasional dashes of 'Carry On' film-style casual chauvinism and sexism, but somehow seems more honest for it, and I would hardly call these parts offensive. The book ends with tables detailing Moss' racing CV - at a casual glance, one has to admit that he did win rather often, losing mostly only when the cars broke down on him. He was quite an exceptional driver. 4.25/5

[Parker W · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, first published in 1963, was a reporter's account of Stirling's life and history at that time. Stirling Moss was a really famous and highly skilled racing driver in the 1950's and 60's.

This book, however, was written with the enthusiasm and wild-eyed adoration of an obsessed 15-year old. Perhaps that was the market he was aiming for, but the constant surge of praise towards this driver was too much.

Also, for one unfamiliar with the racing scene in the 1950's and 1960's, the name-dropping and references make it difficult to make any sense out of what was going on. He sounds like a cool guy and a great driver, but halfway through this book I just lost interest.

[Jayhawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book changed my life when I was in 5th grade