About

About Fletcher Motoring Books

As a teenager in the 1950s I began dreaming of the car I could buy as soon as I was old enough to drive. Initially I was aiming at something like a TC MG for £100 and started reading the small ads in Motorsport Magazine. I soon realised that if I went back to the 1920s I could get much more exotic cars for my £100 and in order to discover the most desirable models I decided to seek out contemporary reviews and accounts.

The first book I took home from the family bookshop in Cecil Court was Prince Chula:Road Racing 1936, an account of his cousin, Prince Bira’s season racing ERAs, and since it was a fine, privately printed edition, I put it on the bookshelf and started adding to it. I soon found that, as a bookseller, I needed to keep my collecting activity separate from bookselling and I made it a rule never to sell motoring books, but always be willing to exchange duplicates with other collectors.

Thus began a collection of several thousand duplicates that I now, some 70 years later, need to start putting back into the market, a task that until recently seemed insuperable. However, my son and daughter-in-law are now producing catalogue descriptions using AI at a speed that I could not hope to achieve. As a traditional cataloguer I am still a little sceptical of the results; but the bibliographical details are accurate, and it is only the assessments of importance and rarity which are sometimes overestimated. Those I disagree with I have deleted.

This list may appear AI generated but behind it is a human being with some seventy years experience in the subject. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.Further lists will become available as the books are processed.Enquiries are welcome.For the main H.M. Fletcher catalogue of antiquarian books across all subjects, visit hmfletcher.co.uk.