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The Grand Prix Saboteurs
The GP drivers who became secret agents during World War II
James Bond meets Michael Schumacher. The idea of racing drivers working as secret agents is at best far-fetched but The Grand Prix Saboteurs tells the amazing true story of how three top Grand Prix drivers from the 1920s and 1930s worked for a clandestine British secret service in occupied France, during World War II.
The product of 18 years of research, the book tells a story that remained top secret until the British Government finally agreed to release classified documents in 2003. It dazzles with swashbuckling escapes, shocking betrayals and a story you will never forget.
The Grand Prix Saboteurs was published in 2006 and won the Guild of Motor Writers Book of the Year award.
Truth really is more extraordinary than fiction.If you tried to sell a screenplay about a Grand Prix racing driver who turned into a spy for the British government during World War II, you might expect to be told that your imagination had run away with you. But that is exactly what became of “W Williams” – the driver who won the first ever Monaco Grand Prix in 1929.Any driver who tackled the beasts that were pre-war Grand Prix machinery were by definition exceptionally brave. Willy Grover was no exception – but he used that bravery to serve a higher purpose when war broke out a few years later.Originally a chauffeur, Grover became a racer for Ettore Bugatti’s team. He retired from the sport years before the onset of war. He later joined the Special Operations Executive and spearheaded a resistance movement based in Paris, to sabotage the German occupation forces.“The Grand Prix Saboteurs” is the product of 18 years research by Joe Saward, former editor of Autosport and the man behind Grandprix.com. Impeccably detailed and imaginatively told, the plot develops at a rapid pace set within an illuminating historical context.The astonishing tale has taken time to come to light because of the hitherto paucity of material about secret service operations during the war. Denial of the existence of the SOE was maintained for a long time.Now the truth has come to light and Saward has more than done justice to the endeavours of Williams and ally Robert Benoist (another former driver) in this exceptional work. Don’t miss it.
www.racefans.net
It's not a motorsport book at all, in the strictest sense - racing is just one of many parts in its complex fabric - but it's one of the most compelling I've read for a while. A terrific piece of work.
Motorsport News UK
French-based British F1 writer Joe Saward's book on three motor racing stars of the 1920s and 30s, who worked together as British secret agents during World War II in occupied France, is a ripper.
John Connolly, The Australian
It may sound like fiction, but the dramatic story related in this book is one of the most remarkable in motor racing history.
Author Joe Saward, best known for his coverage of F1 for many years, spent over 18 years researching this book. It deserves to be read by everyone with an interest in grand prix racing before World War 2, or the history of the French Resistance movement and the Special Operations Executive during that conflict, or by those who simply enjoy an absorbing story of courage and human endurance.
Autosport
This is an intriguing story of bravery and human endurance played out against the glamorous background of international motor racing and the clandestine world of wartime espionage. Joe saward has cleverly knitted these two strands together and the result is a singularly absorbing volume.
The Guardian
A cracking story. A tale of derring-do and chivalry on the race track of yore, of romance against the glamorous backdrops of 1920s Paris and Monaco and of heroism and tragedy behind the lines in WWII. The Grand Prix Saboteurs is history, but it reads like a series of screenplays crammed with compelling characters.
Andrew Baker, The Daily Telegraph
It's a great book, well written and the two main figures, Grover-Williams and Benoist are just what racing drivers should be. I think it would make a brilliant film.
James Allen
A book I've massively enjoyed.
Peter Windsor, F1 Racing
This is an intriguing story of bravery and human endurance played out against the glamorous background of international motor racing and the clandestine world of wartime espionage. Joe saward has cleverly knitted these two strands together and the result is a singularly absorbing volume.
The Observer
I could not put the book down, and having now finished it, I wish it had gone on longer.
Brad Spurgeon, The International Herald Ttribune
Compelling book that will appeal not just to racing enthusiasts but to sports fans in general.
Peter Sharkey, The Birmingham Post
The Grand Prix Saboteurs is a fascinating and long overdue insight into an underwritten era of motorsport history. Saward's unflinching forensic investigation into a complex true story that is a combination of sporting endeavour and world conflict, puts flesh on the bones of long departed ghosts from racing's past and rattles along with all the drama and pace of a John Le Carré thriller.
David Tremayne, The Independent
Saward has combined his formidable knowledge of GP racing together with a vast quantity of meticulous research and managed, with enviable deftness, to produce a thrilling and heartbreaking story. Anyone interested in the fascinating legend of the racing driver spies Benoist and Williams and Wimille, and in SOE in general, should buy this book.
Robert Ryan, author of "Early One Morning"