I had an idea of what I wanted, but David who is doing the typesetting and layout at the printer in Hamilton has turned airy-fairy ideas into reality. I didn’t want a fancy ‘coffee table’ type book nor did I want a ‘stamp album’ of pics and texts, but I did want to create a permanent record of forest rallying in Scotland. That has been the sole objective behind this series of books from the start.
It was never the intention that this book would be read from first page to last like a novel as it was intended to be more of a reference type work that folk can dip into and out of as and when they feel like it. Having said that, there will be folk out there who will indeed read it from cover to cover and if that’s the case then that will be very satisfying - for the next book will follow a similar format!
Whether the mix is right or wrong will be determined by those who read it, and no doubt there will be critics who will complain that the subject hasn’t been covered in sufficient depth, or the wrong pictures have been chosen, or someone has been left out, but this and the following books will have been compiled by someone who was there with notebook in hand and camera at the ready.
However gathering every story and photographing every car and personality is impossible to capture by one person on a one day event with 70, 80, 90 or more crews.
The idea is to educate, inform and entertain and perhaps act as a trigger for personal memories long since dimmed by time. But until someone else comes along to do a better job this will just have to do, for the sport is too important to many of us not to leave a permanent record behind.
Only you lot can decide.
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