A Little Goes a Long Way

The book recounts the adventures of Mike Dickin and Simon Park, driving a BL Mini 1275GT sponsored by the Post Office, and nicknamed ''The Buzby Special'', on the 30,000-kilometre 1977 Singapore Airlines London-Sydney rally. It begins with a shambolic foray into France in 1976 which first fired their imaginations and layed the groundwork for their commitment the following year. It then deals with the acquisition of the car and sponsorship, and describes the detailed preparations required for an event on this scale. The trip itself is recalled in ten chapters taking us from Covent Garden to the Sydney Opera House, via Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia from west to east. They probably had a more colourful, chaotic and eventful rally than most other crews, and the tales of Turkish lorries, midnight border crossings, Indian mystics and bouncing off rubber trees are suffused with the omnipresent themes of exhaustion, elation and despair. Despite the epic journey and the often frightening events it recalls, the book doesn''t take itself too seriously, and is written with a wry, self-deprecating humour. In the author''s own words, it is ''an endless inventory of cock-ups''.