Last week The Royal Automobile Club hosted a rather special evening to launch Giles Chapman’s remarkable new book on the founder of Jaguar Cars, Sir William Lyons, written around his captivating 1969 address and the fullest account he ever gave of Jaguar’s evolution, its iconic cars and his philosophy.
The evening was hosted by Richard West, an experienced businessman, motivational speaker and author with a commercial background in Formula 1. He was the overall Administrator of the British Touring Car Championship for four years and has worked with the likes of Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher. He has also held senior sponsorship and marketing roles with the McLaren, Arrows and the Williams F1 Teams as well as being a main board director of the TWR Jaguar Team.
The other members of the Q&A panel included Giles Chapman, the book’s originator and compiler, Michael Quinn, the grandson of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons and Ian Callum CBE, a British car designer who worked for Ford, TWR and Aston Martin before becoming the Director of Design for Jaguar Cars in 1999, a position he held until 2018 before starting his own automotive and product design company ‘Callum’.
Entitled ‘Sir William Lyons on Jaguar’, this is a Jaguar book with a difference that is written around an address Sir William Lyons gave to the Institute of the Motor Industry in 1969 under the title ‘The History of the Jaguar and the future of the Specialised car in the British Motor Industry’.
His address was given just after the launch of the XJ6 saloon and is a captivating personal account that explains how Sir William built up Jaguar and what, in his view, made Jaguar cars so special and distinctive.
At the heart of the book is Sir William’s extensive text, which is supported by an extensive array of archives, including 150 photographs that precisely illustrate many of the points Sir William made in his address and the beautiful cars he was responsible for creating.
This beautiful eye-catching square-format hardback book that reflects the quality of Jaguars, has purposely been published on the 40th anniversary of Sir William Lyons’s death and the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of a Jaguar car.
Author Giles Chapman takes a completely different approach to a much published and very popular subject that looks at the company’s evolution and the famous cars it created, together with numerous insights into Sir William’s philosophy, strategy and thinking.
Chapman, who lives in London, is the author of 60+ books on a wide range of car-related subjects that includes two books about Jaguar. He has edited Classic & Sports Car and contributed to numerous other publications. He founded the Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year Awards, with his own books having received numerous awards and nominations, including 2023 Classic Car Writer of the Year from the Guild of Motoring Writers.
This wonderful book rounds off with a preface by Sir William’s grandson, Michael Quinn and an epilogue by Chapman examining Sir William’s lasting legacy and the future of the great British brand he created. Read the book and you will discover the essence of Jaguar by the man who started it and who so rarely aired his thoughts in public. It also leads nicely into the current furore over ‘what is a Jaguar?’
Published: 17th July 2025
UK Price: £50.00
ISBN: 978 1-9-10505-99-1
Pages: 128 pages with 150 photographs
Format: 255 x 255mm Jacketed hardback
Sir William Lyons on Jaguar – The legend explained in his own words
By Giles Chapman
Published by Evro Publishing
For more information and purchase of copy of Sir William Lyons on Jaguar, please visit the Evro website: www.evropublishing.com. You can also purchase the book at Blackwell’s and on Amazon.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is a UK-based motoring and travel journalist and editor, a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and former saloon car racing driver.
Top photograph by Gary Harman and book images courtesy of Evro Publishing
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