Raymond Mays the author

Raymond Mays is known to have written two books about his life and times but now knowledge of a third has surfaced although copies are extremely rare.

The records show that he had two published works, both written with the help of ghost writers. They were Split Seconds - My Racing Years (G T Foulis & Co Ltd, London, 1950) and BRM with co-author Peter Roberts (Cassell and Co Ltd, 1962). He also contributed a chapter on hill climbing technique for Lord Howe's volume on Motor Racing (1939) and a piece for Speed: the Book of Racing and Records (1950).

The two complete books carrying his name are well known publications and many copies exist here in Bourne, notably at the Heritage Centre in South Street, home of the Raymond Mays Memorial Room which is devoted to his life and career.
But there was another, At Speed by Raymond Mays, published in 1952 by Hodder and Stoughton and printed by C Tinling and Co Ltd., of Liverpool, London and Prescot, a partnership that produced many popular books of the time although it has taken some research to track down this third work.

Few people associated with Mays, either in Bourne or in the racing world, have heard of it. The publishers were unable to help because their records from that period no longer exist while the print firm folded in 1975 and there is no mention of it in the British Library, the country’s legal depository holding some 14 million titles and which receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom.

Furthermore there is no copy of it in the Raymond Mays Memorial Room here in Bourne but after a lengthy trawl through the Internet, a clue finally surfaced that has put an end to the mystery.

As a result, we have discovered that the book was printed and put on sale in 1952, a bad year for the BRM which had been dogged by a long period of misfortune involving components and race tracks and was now facing financial difficulties and in danger of being wound up, although it was eventually sold to the engineering firm Rubery Owen. But soon after publication it was discovered that Raymond Mays had upset a few people by what he had written and so rather than incur further acrimony and perhaps even attract the attention of the lawyers, the book was hastily withdrawn and all unsold copies removed from the shops and destroyed rather than risk a legal action that could have costly repercussions.

The book was a hardback with a red linen cover, 190 pages and ten photographs plus the frontispiece, a copy of the portrait in oils of Mays painted in 1950 by Sofy Asscher and which now hangs in the entrance foyer at the Red Hall.

The only reference we could find is in a book entitled BRM V16 (Veloce Publishing 2006) by Karl Ludvigsen, the prolific American journalist and historian specialising in motor racing history and author of almost fifty books on the subject who now lives in Suffolk. In a section entitled Reflections, he writes about his researches into the problems involved with the development of the V16 and the way they were eventually solved, describing how he was loaned a copy of the “rare” 1952 book At Speed and adds: “In it, Mays was so revelatory about the struggles of the BRM Trust and the team that all but a few copies were retrieved and pulped.”

One copy that has survived is now owned by Lindsay Johnson, aged 59, a retired civil servant, who lives at Bromley, Kent, and is related to Raymond Mays as a second cousin. It was given to him by a friend who bought it for £10 while browsing for publications connected with motor racing from a second hand bookshop at Hay-on-Wye, a small market town at Powys, Wales, close to the border with England where there are so many bookshops that it is often described as "the town of books". One or two other copies may exist but as the bulk of the print run was destroyed, they will have by now become collector’s items.

Lindsay Johnson eventually decided to re-publish the book himself although he had difficulties in finding a publisher. “Hardly any of the dozens I approached had even heard of Raymond Mays”, he said, “and when we came to discuss the costs involved I found printing and distribution all so complicated and expensive that it would have set me back a small fortune so I decided to have a go myself.”

The result is that At Speed was published in November 2016 in soft cover with 190 pages and 25 illustrations and is already on sale at the Brooklands race track in Surrey, a favourite venue where Mays once competed.

The re-appearance of this book also puts the record straight about what Raymond Mays left for posterity in the way of autobiography and in view of its rarity and the number of organisations now devoted to the history of the BRM and motor racing in general, there will be many supporters of the man and the motor car who will welcome this reprint and the enterprise of Lindsay Johnson is making it possible.

Note: Copies of the book are available at £6.99 including postage from Lindsay
Johnson at 9 Beechmont Close, Bromley, Kent BR1 4NJ.

REVISED NOVEMBER 2016