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From the personal family and racing photograph albums of Contessa Camilla Maggi, Peter Miller has created a fascinating portrait of Conte Amyo Maggi and the unique race he founded in 1927, The Mille Miglia. 

The story of Italy's classic 1,000 mile race, re-run in May each year for veteran and pre-1957 vintage cars, is a dramatic one. Founded to boost the flagging Italian motor industry.

Count Maggi drove in publicised and promoted his event until it was first banned in 1938 after a serious crash involving crowd fatalities. Undeterred , the race was run again in 1940 when most of Europe was already at war , after Maggi persuaded Italian officials to let him hold the event on a 103 mile triangular circuit around Brescia. June 1947, after the conflict was over, saw the return of the Mille Miglia on battle scarred roads on a round-Italy circuit, and Maggi's last poignant race as a competitor.

" With each successive year the event attracted more glamour and prestige , until another crash in 1957, when Fon de Portago killed himself and eleven others, saw its tragic end; four years later Maggi himself died, a broken man."

In over 150 photographs-many of which have never been published, with contributions from Stirling Moss, Piero Taruffi, Alfred Neubouer and others who took part, and including Enzo Ferraris own comments on the last tragic race, plus exclusive photographs and machine drawings of  the two seater Maggi-Berardi racing cars, lost without trace since 1926.

"This book captures the true essence of the Mille Miglia magic, its triumphs and its hazards, and the extraordinary and determined life of the man behind it, a nobleman whose dream came true and who created the most exciting  motor race in the world."

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