Rally - Mull bound

The Book-tique is heading to Mull next Friday 9th October, but only for the day. First ferry over in the morning and an evening ferry back home. Unfortunately, a full weekend is just a bit out of reach these days. The Doc was told it was just a wee day trip to deliver some orders, but I didn’t quite get around to telling him the destination was Tobermory, and he didn’t ask!

The plan is to set up somewhere near Scrutineering which this year is back in the Distillery yard and I’ll publish a wee fotie with details once I get there so the Book-tique will be easily found.

I’ve got some orders for collection but I’ll also have copies of all the other books as well as copies of ‘Murmurs on Mull’. This book actually takes up from where Brian Molyneux’s book finishes. The late founder of the Mull Rally published two books, the second an update of the first, and covers the period 1969 to 1993 with ‘Murmurs on Mull’ taking the story from 1993 to 2010.

However it has to be said, and potential readers warned, that the style and content of the ‘MoM’ volume is rather different from the academic, erudite and detailed storytelling of the original documentaries as written by the original and genuine authority on the subject, whereas the current story extension wasn’t!

In fact the ‘MoM’ volume is comprised entirely of the FULL set of the ‘MullMurmurs’ on-event bulletins which were composed and typed on to stencils during the rally itself and then run off on a duplicator in the back of a van before the hurriedly printed bulletins were handed to ‘Bulletin Bill’ and his sundry collection of press-ganged cohorts for distribution around the island – and all accomplished while the rally was underway!

Unfortunately, the author of the original Mull Rally books which told the story of ‘the Best Rally in the World’ declined to update the history any further and so in the absence of intellect, common sense and expert insight this 1993-2010 update relied entirely on the compilation of the on-event bulletins as invented, composed and written by the feverish mind of one Jaggy Bunnet Esq.

No-one is quite sure who this character was (is?) such was his fleeting presence at various locations around the rally route and in the pubs (fuelled by the Salen Hotel’s steak pie – thanks Gerry) compiling the gossip, scandals, tales, fibs and occasional rally facts into some sort of informative medium. Remember this was in the days before pocket sized computers, compact dot matrix printers and mobile telephones which could send and receive messages without having to sprachle up nearby hills in search of a signal.

In fact, the introductory chapter in this book details how the job was done while the reproduction of the bulletins themselves in this 350 page (yes, really!) book tells the story of the rally as it was at the time recalling the sights, sounds, smells and weather as events actually happened.

In fact, I have been told by an authoritative source (?) that it provides the most evocative commentary on events as they happened.

So for one day only, the Book-tique will be on Mull and open from 9.00 am (ish) to 5.00 pm (ish) on Friday 9th October somewhere near Scrutineering. Just look for the red Transit and I’ll try and put my flag up as well !!

https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/