Zephyr Zodiac is the story of a Mark 3 Ford Zephyr Zodiac, the iconic car introduced in Britain to great acclaim in 1962. The narrative begins at the time the two-tone, white-walled tyred, leopard-skin upholstered car rolls off the production line in May of that year and ends when it meets its timely demise in a car crusher in 2012, during which time it chronicles how it affects the lives of seven of the people who own it during that period. The seven tales of its fifty eventful years earth include: the time it spends its days as a chauffeur-driven company limousine (and as a love nest by the chauffeur); the spell it is the family car of a loving, childless couple (and the new home of a couple of homeless children); the occasion it serves as a funeral car (and a temporary safe); the four years it is a taxi (and a means of transport for getting rid of a troublesome wife and her even more troublesome mother-in-law); the time it spends as Classic Car (in which mode it fulfils the dreams of both a retired body shop mechanic and a Z-Car obsessed police superintendent). During which, among other things, it is given birth in, used as an emergency wedding car, stolen (more than once), used to have sex in (much more than once), and is instrumental in giving its grateful owner and his wife their lives back.
Some of these stories in Zephyr Zodiac will warm the cockles of your heart and some will make you laugh. Maybe a couple of them will do both.
Amazon Reader’s Review -
"Ostensibly this is a book about a car. In fact it is a short social history of the last fifty years. The style is somewhat sketch like with an emphasis on dialogue. The effect is to bring the characters to life in such a way as to make even the surreal seem credible. The tales are populated with persons such as bullying police chiefs, hapless undertakers trying to be gangsters and a lost retired guy whose work was the purpose of his life. Although the overall tone is comic, there is genuine pathos in a childless couple and a doting betrayed husband. If you are reading the book as a petrol head, you will not learn anything too technical about Ford Zephyr Zodiacs but the author has not set out to produce a manual. I found this a most enjoyable read that had me searching back to my own memories of the 1960s. The Zodiac represented a belief in and aspiration for status and a life that could be ‘deluxe’. It was a symbol of where we were all going - to a guilt free modern land of consumption. I think we broke down somewhere. Clearly Terry Ravenscroft knows the social dynamics of our society and conveys a reverence for ordinary folk and their dreams." Oscar Sparrow.
Some of these stories in Zephyr Zodiac will warm the cockles of your heart and some will make you laugh. Maybe a couple of them will do both.
Amazon Reader’s Review -
"Ostensibly this is a book about a car. In fact it is a short social history of the last fifty years. The style is somewhat sketch like with an emphasis on dialogue. The effect is to bring the characters to life in such a way as to make even the surreal seem credible. The tales are populated with persons such as bullying police chiefs, hapless undertakers trying to be gangsters and a lost retired guy whose work was the purpose of his life. Although the overall tone is comic, there is genuine pathos in a childless couple and a doting betrayed husband. If you are reading the book as a petrol head, you will not learn anything too technical about Ford Zephyr Zodiacs but the author has not set out to produce a manual. I found this a most enjoyable read that had me searching back to my own memories of the 1960s. The Zodiac represented a belief in and aspiration for status and a life that could be ‘deluxe’. It was a symbol of where we were all going - to a guilt free modern land of consumption. I think we broke down somewhere. Clearly Terry Ravenscroft knows the social dynamics of our society and conveys a reverence for ordinary folk and their dreams." Oscar Sparrow.
