Blood, Sweat & Tyres: The Little Book of the Automobile

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The Little Book of LondonWith a quarter of million cars a day crowding onto the M25, and millions more standing nose-to-tail on our A-roads, Britain is now officially Europe's largest car park. In Germany it's illegal to drive on a motorway at less than 37mph, but in south-east England it can be a struggle even to reach such a speed during daylight hours.

You know how it is. Over-stressed, over-taxed, with petrol at well over a pound a litre rising, and the morning and evening rush hours rapidly merging into one, UK motorists have now become slaves to the machine rather than its master. People, even so, are still keen to go places – according to the Times the A-Z to of London is the most shoplifted book in Britain – and tragically there is still no better way of doing it than by car.

Written with the mad, suffering millions in mind, Blood, Sweat & Tyres is the antidote you've been waiting for. Casting a wry eye over the world of modern motoring, and highlighting some of its strangest and more bizarre aspects, it seeks to put the sheer awfulness of driving anywhere into some kind of sensible perspective. Failing that it might at least give the victims - motorists, their passengers, friends and families - something funny to read and to reflect upon whilst they wait for the road ahead to clear.

Buy a copy now, and find out:

Why the most successful Le Mans driver of all time wishes he could race a 90 year old lady

How we know Shakespeare wasn't a petrolhead

Why the Fab Three bullied Ringo into selling his favourite French supercar

When some bright spark thought TNT might be a more effective fuel source than petrol

And how big a forest your average football team would need to plant to offset the massive carbon footprint of all the gas-guzzlers in the players' car park.