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The Boy

Stirling Moss: A Life in 60 Laps

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The Boy

By: Richard Williams
Narrated by: Richard Williams
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About this listen

 'Captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes' Sunday Times
'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' Mark Knopfler
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the death of Stirling Moss on 12 April 2020 at the age of 90 made headlines, almost 60 years after he retired from Formula One. In The Boy, Richard Williams assesses what made him such an iconic figure.

Told in 60 brief chapters, Williams builds a fascinating and revealing portrait of a driver who was a hero to millions. As the long years of war began to recede, sport in Britain was getting moving again and there was a need for heroes. Denis Compton and Stanley Matthews were in their pomp, playing to packed houses. But Stirling Moss was a fresh face, just 17 years old when he first emerged in 1947. Too young to have served and been scarred by the war, he was soon revealed to possess not only an unearthly degree of skill but the qualities of courage and resolution noted in the generation that fought in the air and on land and sea. Their youth had been stolen; his was new and unspoiled.

The Boy explains how and why he came to occupy such a unique place in the esteem and the affections of the nation. Why him, rather than some of his contemporaries, such as Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, who shared a role in the rise of Britain as a power in international motor racing? Moss may never have been world champion, but he created a remarkable and enduring legacy, and Williams brilliantly shows just how he did it. Sports War

Critic reviews

‘Moss raced in 108 different cars, many lovingly described by Williams, who knows his torque from his traction. He writes skilfully for petrolheads but also those of us whose delight is in the quirky details... a book that is rather more than a biography. Call it an appreciation of what makes a sporting hero. This book would certainly be the starting point for any screenplay in affectionately setting out why Moss, the racer, was so revered.’ (Matt Dickinson)
'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' (Mark Knopfler)
'Williams's fast-paced and affectionate biography...captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes... [he] seems incapable of writing a dull sentence about these now legendary racing cars’ (Justin Marozzi)
'An affectionate and atmospheric look at what it was which elevated him to iconic status'
'Williams's...work is incredibly good value for money. A fine introduction to both a bygone era and one of motorsport's greatest figures' (Kevin Turner)
‘The Boy is not a conventional biography…it offers 60 short chapters, each focusing on one incident, one person, one car or one aspect of Moss’s personality. This proves to be a fresh way of telling a story that’s been told many times before…We are in very safe hands with Richard Williams…[he] is, as ever, great at juggling the big picture and the tiny detail.’ (Colin Overland)
'[A] sympathetic, exhaustive anatomy of an international sporting hero, part-time playboy and ultimate family man' (Patrick Skene Catling)
All stars
Most relevant
first class narrative, a book you found yourself immersed in even if you didn't want to be
excellent book I recommend it

brought a real appreciation of the man

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Having enjoyed Maurice Hamilton’s biography of Niki Lauda very much, I was very disappointed by this. Unlike Hamilton’s book, it seemed to offer few new insights into the man - and the effort put into a somewhat out of place rant on modern politics close to the end, would have been better used in trying to divine what might have been going on in the mind of Enzo Ferrari in his various dealings with Moss. As with many racing biographies, there are accounts of the various grands prix - but these are a matter of record, and can be found on Wikipedia; I look for more thought provoking material in a biography, and regrettably, this one didn’t provide it.

Disappointing

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The life of Stirling Moss was exciting and dramatic, and Richard Williams' meticulously researched book is a font of stats and information. Every race is described in detail. I confess that I found it sometimes uninteresting in the microscopic nature of this, but that may have been the effect of the reader, who is the author himself. He sounds bored most of the time, with little light and shade in his delivery. Overall I was amazed that a life that exemplified the Zeitgeist could have been made a bit dull.

Good story made dreary

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I have always been a fan of Richard Williams however I will not be purchasing another audiobook with him as the narrator; he sounded bored which is a real shame as the book is very good.

Great Story, awful diction

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