Review

4x4 magazine says of LAND ROVER FILE, 65TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: The anniversary in question is the April 1948 appearance at the Amsterdam Motor Show of the first Land Rover. Eric Dymock’s Land Rover File has been produced to celebrate that fact and the publication covers all models since 1947. The first version of this book was published in 2006, but quite a lot has happened since then! There is indeed a lot to enjoy here and one of the bits that made me smile was Roger Crathorne’s Foreword. Roger has, of course, worked for Land Rover for 50 of those 65 years and there’s no better man to write a foreword. Commenting about author Dymock, he states: “As an independent author, we may not agree with him on absolutely everything, but we use this book as a working document and I commend it.” That’s enough for me, if Crathorne uses it, despite the fact he might not agree with everything, I shall be keeping this on the shelf in my office. Eric Dymock has been a motoring correspondent for more years than he probably wants to admit, and his material has always had the kind of objective comment that makes a really good read, not like some of the more blinkered acolytes that make a living writing about Land Rover products.
As a book, it’s a great ‘square’ format, and has suitably high production values, which makes the cost of £22.50 particularly impressive. It’s also an independent publication, and that’s always worth supporting. Well worth putting on any 4x4 enthusiast’s bookshelf; great as a reference tool, but equally enjoyable just to dip in and out. I will be doing both. NF ISBN 0-978-0-9569533-6-0