Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Boy

By: Richard Williams
Narrated by: Richard Williams
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

'Captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes' Sunday Times
'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' Mark Knopfler
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the death of Stirling Moss on 12 April 2020 at the age of 90 made headlines, almost 60 years after he retired from Formula One. In The Boy, Richard Williams assesses what made him such an iconic figure.

Told in 60 brief chapters, Williams builds a fascinating and revealing portrait of a driver who was a hero to millions. As the long years of war began to recede, sport in Britain was getting moving again and there was a need for heroes. Denis Compton and Stanley Matthews were in their pomp, playing to packed houses. But Stirling Moss was a fresh face, just 17 years old when he first emerged in 1947. Too young to have served and been scarred by the war, he was soon revealed to possess not only an unearthly degree of skill but the qualities of courage and resolution noted in the generation that fought in the air and on land and sea. Their youth had been stolen; his was new and unspoiled.

The Boy explains how and why he came to occupy such a unique place in the esteem and the affections of the nation. Why him, rather than some of his contemporaries, such as Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, who shared a role in the rise of Britain as a power in international motor racing? Moss may never have been world champion, but he created a remarkable and enduring legacy, and Williams brilliantly shows just how he did it.
©2021 Richard Williams (P)2021 Simon & Schuster UK
Sports War
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Carroll Shelby Story cover art
Variable Valve Timings cover art
Lights Out, Full Throttle cover art
Valentino Rossi cover art
How to Build a Car cover art
Inside F1 cover art
Total Competition cover art
J.D. cover art
Aussie Grit cover art
Driven cover art
Charles Rolls of Rolls-Royce cover art
How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver cover art
Carbolics cover art
Charles Leclerc: A Biography cover art
Lando Norris cover art
Dead Men Don’t Tell Tales cover art

Critic reviews

‘Moss raced in 108 different cars, many lovingly described by Williams, who knows his torque from his traction. He writes skilfully for petrolheads but also those of us whose delight is in the quirky details... a book that is rather more than a biography. Call it an appreciation of what makes a sporting hero. This book would certainly be the starting point for any screenplay in affectionately setting out why Moss, the racer, was so revered.’ (Matt Dickinson)
'A fascinating read and sure to be the definitive account of his life' (Mark Knopfler)
'Williams's fast-paced and affectionate biography...captures the bold, engaging spirit of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes... [he] seems incapable of writing a dull sentence about these now legendary racing cars’ (Justin Marozzi)

What listeners say about The Boy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer

brought a real appreciation of the man

first class narrative, a book you found yourself immersed in even if you didn't want to be
excellent book I recommend it

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Marc Fovargue-Davies

Disappointing

Having enjoyed Maurice Hamilton’s biography of Niki Lauda very much, I was very disappointed by this. Unlike Hamilton’s book, it seemed to offer few new insights into the man - and the effort put into a somewhat out of place rant on modern politics close to the end, would have been better used in trying to divine what might have been going on in the mind of Enzo Ferrari in his various dealings with Moss. As with many racing biographies, there are accounts of the various grands prix - but these are a matter of record, and can be found on Wikipedia; I look for more thought provoking material in a biography, and regrettably, this one didn’t provide it.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer

Good story made dreary

The life of Stirling Moss was exciting and dramatic, and Richard Williams' meticulously researched book is a font of stats and information. Every race is described in detail. I confess that I found it sometimes uninteresting in the microscopic nature of this, but that may have been the effect of the reader, who is the author himself. He sounds bored most of the time, with little light and shade in his delivery. Overall I was amazed that a life that exemplified the Zeitgeist could have been made a bit dull.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!