annieb123's Review of Fay Taylour, 'The World's Wonder Girl'

by Stephen M Cullen

Fay Taylour (1904-1983) remains the most successful female motorsports champion. She defeated the foremost male motorcycle speedway stars of the 1920s and 1930s. A household name in Britain and her native Ireland, she won further fame on the track in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Her successes against men led to a ban on women competing against them in the UK, but Fay Taylour carried on, racing around the world. She also built a new career in long distance car racing and carved a name for herself in the new sport of midget car racing.

All of this came to a halt with the outbreak of the Second World War, which, controversially, saw Fay Taylour join Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement and become part of an underground pro-Hitler campaign in London. She was imprisoned for three years by the British authorities. After the war, she was one of the very few pre-war women motorsports champions to return to the track. She re-established her career with highly successful tours in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, before moving to the USA. There she first sold sports cars in Hollywood before returning to midget-car racing across America. Later banned from the USA for her earlier politics, she again took to racetracks around the world, competing against the world’s best well into her fifties.

This first full biography of Fay Taylour is based on her extensive personal papers, media reports of her racing career around the world, and decades of UK government security files. It covers Taylour’s life on and off the track, her struggles with sports and security authorities, her battles against anti-female prejudices, and her many passionate love affairs.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Fay Taylour, 'The World's Wonder Girl' is an intricately crafted, honest (sometimes brutally so), and fascinating memoir and biography of early motorsports icon Fay Taylour by Dr. Stephen M. Cullen. Released 13th Aug by Pen & Sword on their History imprint, it's 248 pages and available in hardcover and ebook.

The point with biography is that the book captures the essence of the subject. The author does an impressive job of context, the social realities of entrenched sexism of the time period, whilst at the same time rendering Ms. Taylour's accomplishments and her life accessible and understandable to modern readers.

The biography format is chronological, setting the subject's early life, growing up in Ireland, move to England, learning to ride a motorbike, and progression into motorsports. It's very often poignant and each successive victory on the part of Ms. Taylour comes *despite* every obstacle (and they were legion) thrown in her way. The author has a knack of remaining academically rigorous and factual, whilst conveying the pathos and frustration of her life. The author also doesn't shy away from the WW2 period and her association with Mosley's brown shirts and the British Union of Fascists, as well as her subsequent detention and incarceration.

Although it's very well annotated and rigorously supported throughout, the language is layman accessible and the whole is readable and easily understandable by non-academics. The links and resources are comprehensive and will provide many hours of further reading. The book includes a modest number of archival photographs from the Fay Taylour archives as well.

Five stars. I recommend it unreservedly to lovers of biography, motorsports history, nonfiction, etc.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

17 January, 2024: Started reading

17 January, 2024: Finished reading

17 January, 2024: Reviewed