Never previously published in book form, this is the fullest known account Sir William Lyons ever provided of his company's evolution and the famous cars it created, together with numerous insights into his philosophy, strategy and thinking.

This is a Jaguar book with a difference. In 1969 Sir William Lyons gave an address to the Institute of the Motor Industry under the title ‘The History of the Jaguar and the future of the Specialised car in the British Motor Industry’. Delivered just after the launch of the seminal XJ6 saloon, it is a captivating personal account that explains how he built up Jaguar and what, in his view, made Jaguars special and distinctive. His extensive text forms the heart of this book, supported by a vivid array of archive photographs and rounded off with a preface by Michael Quinn (Sir William’s grandson) and an epilogue by Giles Chapman (the book’s originator and compiler) examining Sir William’s lasting legacy and the future of the great British brand he created.

  • Never previously published in book form, this is the fullest known account Sir William Lyons ever provided of his company’s evolution and the famous cars it created, together with numerous insights into his philosophy, strategy and thinking.
• Carefully illustrated with archive photographs that precisely illustrate many of the points Sir William made in his text and the beautiful cars he was responsible for.
• This trenchant contribution from Jaguar’s guiding hand marches straight into the current furore over ‘what is a Jaguar?’
• A totally different approach to a much-published and very popular subject.
• A beautiful square-format hardback produced to the highest quality with eye-catching modern design.
• Published at the 40th anniversary of Sir William Lyons’s death and the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of a ‘Jaguar’ car.

Here, uniquely, is the essence of Jaguar by the man who started it all, and who so rarely aired his thoughts in public.