Motor Racing books for Christmas

Tyrrell's drive to succeed inspires warm tributes to the kind of sporting life that has all but vanished from the circuit

It is perhaps inevitable and appropriate that, at the end of another Formula One season rendered soporific by the domination of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, the sport should have yielded a crop of books largely devoid of originality and cutting edge. Instead, publishers have resorted to nostalgia, recycling familiar tales of heroics long past.

But the story of Ken Tyrrell has never been adequately compiled until now because he declined to countenance such self-indulgence. His death last year prompted two suitable tributes, by stalwart writers ideally qualified for the task. Maurice Hamilton has penned Ken Tyrrell: The Authorised Biography (Collins Willow, £18.99) with the support of his subject's family and close friends, while Christopher Hilton, author of Ken Tyrrell: Portrait of a Motor Racing Giant (Haynes Publishing, £19.99), had to rely rather more on his well-honed reporting and improvisational instincts.

Both have captured the essence of the man and his achievements as a privateer who, with a handful of staff and modest funds, produced a championship-winning car from a timber-yard shed; driven to succeed yet guided by a sense of fair play. Even at critical moments on the track he would be more inclined to fret over the fate of his beloved Tottenham Hotspur or the plight of the England Test team. Heaven only knows what he would have made of the latest Ashes débâcle.

Tyrrell was passionate about football and cricket from boyhood. Motor racing was a later fad that became his professional life and embraced his family too.

He was smart enough to recognise he had little more than average driving ability and found his niche in management. His wife, Norah, became timekeeper and surrogate mum to the team.

It was another partnership that lifted Tyrrell from aspiring entrant to championship status. He signed a young driver called Jackie Stewart and the foundations of a legend were laid. Stewart was champion in 1969, 1971 and 1973 and is still the only Briton with three titles.

Stewart's own remarkable rise to prominence was inextricably linked to Tyrrell's, and Hamilton makes full use of the eloquent Scotsman's contribution. Stewart, with Tyrrell's understanding, planned to retire after the 1973 United States Grand Prix, the final race of the year and the 100th of his career. But his team-mate, François Cevert, was killed in practice for the race and Stewart pulled out.

By the late Nineties, other powers, with manufacturers' muscle and huge financial backing, had taken over. Tyrrell were out of step and out of their league, ceasing to race in 1998, bought out and replaced by British American Racing.

Modern Formula One is no place for privateers yet Eddie Jordan, who took the plunge in 1991, is still afloat, enjoying the craic if not the race victories of his best seasons, 1998 and 1999, when his team finished fourth and third in the Constructors' Championship.

Eddie Jordan: The Biography by Timothy Collins (Virgin Books, £20) portrays not only a current team owner but also a colourful one. Like Tyrrell, he has achieved far more after giving up driving. Unlike the modest Tyrrell, Jordan is an incorrigible hustler and showman, revelling in the market place and spotlight of Grand Prix racing.

Collins traces Jordan's formative years in the Republic of Ireland and his early, traumatic experiences in England. Jordan's mother, wife, daughter, colleagues and friends give an insight into the music-loving, sport-loving, life-loving, attention-loving Dubliner.

True to a Jordan trait, the script has a tendency to veer off at tangents. The price of co-operation from Jordan and his nearest and dearest is restricted objectivity, and the man himself reveals few of his thoughts on some of the more contentious issues, drivers and other team principles, but his fans will doubtless find this an entertaining read.

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Formula One: The Autobiography, Edited by Gerald Donaldson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £35): Expensive cut-and-paste job, albeit with lots of evocative pictures.

Richard Burns: Driving Ambition, By Richard Burns (Hodder and Stoughton, £18.99): World rally champion follows Colin McRae into print.

Stirling Moss: The Authorised Biography, By Robert Edwards (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £16.99): Lavishly illustrated.

Four Seasons At Ferrari: The Lauda Years, By Alan Henry (Breedon, £19.99)

Graham Hill: Master of Motor Sport, By John Tripler, (Breedon, £19.99).