Jaguar XJ Series Saloons

Mr. Sutherland clearly knows his subject; he owns and drives a Daimler Sovereign and he is well connected in the Jaguar world. However the back cover's description of the book as a 'comprehensive and definitive account' is a little ambitious for a volume of 96 smallish pages, with a lot of space given to pictures. Some aspects, such as the history of the XJ-C coupes or the history of the oldest surviving pre-production XJ6, are covered in detail, and the book is peppered with fascinating factoids, such as the military applications of the Jag 6 cylinder engines, or Jaguar's inability (for legal reasons) to use the Daimler name in the US. The pictures are also of good quality and have been mostly taken for this book - no contemporary publicity shots but actual survivors, in the metal. However in many place the book canters through this fascinating story rather too quickly. For example, I would have loved to see a description of how the XJ6 was developed, by a small team on a limited budget, to become what many consider to be one of the best riding cars in the world. Also, how did Bill Lyons really keep Jag prices so low? And while there is a bibliography (good!) a table showing production by year and model would be a reasonable expectation in a book of this size.

Very good book with a lot of info on XJs