Mini Adventure: 50 Years Of The Iconic Small Car

Martin Wainwright's 2008 biography of the Morris Minor has already sold over 8000 copies - testament not only to its well-loved subject, but also Wainwright's winning style and the book's covetable packaging and eye-catching cover design. Now Wainwright turns his attention to another classic British car: the Mini - celebrating its 50th anniversary - to produce another fascinating book for both the Mini enthusiast and anyone interested in Britain's postwar social history. Here, then, is everything from Sir Alec Issigonis's original conception of the car to its recent rebirth as a badge-engineered BMW. Wainwright writes about the police Mini into whose back seat George Best was once squeezed, the Mini Moke - that weird miniature beach runabout - those strange little Rileys and Wolseleys which were Minis with shark-finned boots - as well as the Mini as a 60s Mary Quant style icon, and how Blue Peter once broke the how-many-people-can-you-get-into-a-Mini world record - not to mention its off-centre driving wheel, its dodgy electrics and the insane interior noise of an original souped-up Mini Cooper. Everyone has ridden in a Mini and has a story to tell about it. Wainwright's book will be the social history this little car has always deserved. Martin Wainwright is the author of Morris Minor: the Biography, The Guardian Book of April Fool's Day and The Coast-to-Coast Walk, and editor of A Lifetime of Mountains and A Gleaming Landscape (all Aurum). He is Northern Editor of the Guardian and lives in Leeds.