Bentley: Fifty Years of the Marque, by Johnnie Green, Third Edition 2003 ISBN 1–85443–135–8, Hardbound, 321 pages, 600 photographs. Dalton Watson Fine Books, Deerfield, IL and Sussex, England. $92/£55

When originally published back in 1969, this book instantly became the standard pictorial reference work on the Bentley marque—and has remained so ever since, through two reprints and three editions (the latest the subject of this review).

If the original could be criticized in any way at all, it was that by covering fifty years worth of production, from three different factories, ranging from the two-wheel-braked three-liter of 1919 to the independently-sprung monocoque T-series of 1969, the author was, perhaps, spreading himself too thin.

The new edition of the book has addressed this particular quibble by employing specialists on the three factories’ products to re-edit the work, revising and updating the original captions in the light of modern historical knowledge. These are, for the “Vintage” (Cricklewood) cars, Peter Hageman, a former chairman of the North-West U.S.A. region of the Bentley Drivers Club; for the 1930s (Derby) cars, Bernard King, U.K. author of several Rolls-Royce and Bentley books in the Complete Classics series, including the Derby Built Bentleys; and for the 1946–1969 (Crewe) cars, Martin Bennett, editor of the Rolls-Royce Club of Australia’s journal Praeclarum and author of Rolls-Royce and Bentley — the Crewe Years inter alia.

Moreover, expert consultants in the U.S.A and the U.K.—one of them a former archivist of Rolls-Royce Motors, Crewe—have reviewed the drafts and made a number of important contributions to them. In addition, the rather confusing single index of the original has given way to four new indices which cover photographs used in the book, chassis numbers, registration numbers and proper names (all of which make the latest edition very much more user friendly as a historical reference.

Although somewhat constrained by layout and space considerations, the new editors have added considerably to the interest and appeal of this edition. Here is but one small example. In the section discussing the 3-1/2 liter delivered in 1934 to the Duke of Kent (fourth son of King George V), we are now told that although the car was fitted with a division, the duke often drove himself to functions. Often was the time that when the rear door was opened for him to alight the duke would appear from the driver’s seat to the astonishment of those there to welcome him.

While the gain in the quality of some of the captions is absolutely beyond doubt, it is this reviewer’s opinion that the same cannot quite be said for the quality of all the photographic reproductions. The original plates having been discarded or lost, the new reproductions have had to be based upon scanned versions of the reproductions contained in earlier editions of the book. The printers admit, in the book, to having encountered enormous difficulties in this, which is perfectly understandable, but their claim to have improved upon the reproduction quality of the earlier editions is a little excessive. Some of the illustrations have that slightly “smudgy” quality that is so often apparent when modern scanning processes have been employed. In making this point, however, the reviewer hopes that he will not be regarded as an incorrigible technophobe.

To anyone interested in the Bentley marque but already in possession of an earlier edition of the book, this revised third edition is still worthy of consideration. To anyone with similar interests who does not already own a copy, the six hundred illustrations and erudite captions of this new edition surely constitute a “must have” opportunity.

• James Fack