By Guy Loveridge
2025 review by Autolycus
The story of a famous racing driver is often exciting, sometimes sensational – but it can often miss the truly private moments that reveal the true character of the person and their relationships with the people in their lives. In this remarkable book, Guy Loveridge has made astute use of a wonderful set of letters written to her parents by Louise Collins-King, the wife and, far too soon after, the widow, of Peter Collins. Chris Price has built up a superb museum and archive of Peter Collins memorabilia, and has very kindly allowed Guy to make use of these letters, sent by Louise to her mother and father between April 1957 and June 1960 – a period spanning the joys of the just-married couple, through the tragedies of the deaths of Peter himself and of his very close friend Mike Hawthorn, to the perhaps mundane but always fascinating practicalities of Louise’s life afterwards. Guy has also delved into Chris Price’s archive to support the letters with a wealth of contemporary photographs (many in colour) and press cuttings, most of them never seen before. Chris Price provides a foreword to the book, explaining how the material came to be preserved for prosperity.
The American actress Louise King, daughter of Andrew Cordier, the Executive Assistant to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, was introduced to Peter Collins on 4 February 1957 by none other than Stirling Moss. Peter and Louise fell in love and married within a week. And, as can be seen from Louise’s letters, that marriage was a truly strong and happy one until it was tragically cut short by Collins’s death on 3 August 1958 at the Nürburgring during the German Grand Prix.
The letters alone would tell a wonderful story, but it is the way that Guy has put this material together that elevates this book from the merely informative to the ‘cannot put it down’. Photos and press cuttings on the left-hand pages are complemented by captions that explain otherwise unfathomable details in the letters on the right-hand pages and bring them truly to life. One simple example illustrates this. Louise, in her natural, chatty and unpretentious style (with some charming misspellings…), talks about Peter and Louise’s good friend Taffy and his recovery from a crushed vertebra. Taffy is only identified when Guy explains under a photo of him that he was the racing driver Wolfgang Graf Bergher von Trips and that the instant Peter and Mike Hawthorn saw him Peter decided that he looked Welsh, so they nicknamed him accordingly.
Louise’s letters are chock-full of references to the famous characters from the racing and theatrical fraternity of the late 1950s. Delightfully, however, there is not one iota of name dropping – they were simply the people that inhabited Peter and Louise’s lives. Of course many of them were from the world of racing and motoring, including Hawthorn, Moss, Ken Gregory and Enzo Ferrari. But others came from Louise’s continuing work in theatre and television, including the Ustinovs. One personality that sat astride both worlds was Jack Dunfee, Bentley Boy and theatrical impresario, who helped Louise gain work on the London stage.
The letters, beautifully assisted by Guy’s captioned images, bring to the reader the private world of the happy couple and then the courageously positive way Louise coped later with adversity, both personal, professional and financial. Guy has also provided an afterword that expands on his contacts with Louise and others who led him to write this story.
This book is a refreshingly different and creative approach to taking the reader deep into the world of racing but also into the loves and lives of those within it. Highly recommended.
Publisher: Douglas Loveridge Publications, Moss View, 85 Warburton, Emley, Yorkshire, HD8 9QP
Price: £40.00 plus p & p direct from the publishers and from Chaters Motoring Books.
Description: 216 pages, hardback with dust jacket. 252mm x 187mm. Illustrated in black & white and colour.
ISBN: 978-1-900113-23-6
Leave a Comment