A Mini Adventure: 50 Years of the Iconic Small Car

The modern-day Mini may bear little mechanical resemblance to the classic British car to which it owes its name. Nonetheless, now over half a century since Sir Alec Issigonis's original conception, the Mini remains a towering icon in Britain's post-war social history. From those with fond memories of this most diminutive vehicle, to those whose only acquaintance is with the modern BMW model's entertainingly short 'Mini Adventures' on TV, this book promises to captivate all who read it. With A Mini Adventure, Martin Wainwright presents a biography of breadth and humour, celebrating this classic car. Here is everything from Sir Alec Issigonis's original conception of the car to its rebirth as a badge-engineered BMW. Wainwright writes about the police Mini into whose back seat George Best was once squeezed, the Mini Moke (a weird miniature beach runabout), the Mini as a '60s Mary Quant style icon, as well as how Blue Peter once broke the how-many-people-can-you-get-into-a-Mini world record - not to mention its off-centre driving wheel, its dodgy electrics and the insane interior noise of an original souped-up Mini Cooper...A Mini Adventure is the social history this little car has always deserved.