Coterie Press Limited was born through a love of Lotus and motor racing in 1996. Where did your love of the sport originate from? 

I grew up living not far from Silverstone and spent just about every weekend of the year travelling to some motor sport event with my Uncle. He took part in just about every type of four-wheeled sport there is and even some lawnmower racing. 

Why a book focusing on McLaren? 

McLaren have one of the greatest histories in motor sport and when I looked and saw there had never been a good history of all the cars they have built I just had to do it. 

You’ve previously published books on Lotus and Healy. How did collaborating with the McLaren team compare with working on the other books? 

Of course, working with a multi million pound company that are one of the most recognised brands in the world was very different. The McLaren philosophy of doing everything to perfection was tough to come to terms with at first, but paid off when you see the end result. 

Many of our fans would love to visit the McLaren Technology Centre. I presume you have visited it. What is it like? 

It is the most incredible building I have ever seen. The first time you go there is one of those moments you will always remember; although, I have to say it is a little intimidating. It’s sort of like going in to the future, it’s so clean and perfect, but nevertheless it has an incredible beauty about it. I think the main thing is that there is just so much light everywhere. After you have been there a few times it invites you in and becomes a fascinating place to spend time. 

Are you a McLaren fan yourself? If not, what team do you support? 

Of course, how could I not be? I have always been a great fan of all the British based F1 teams but since Lotus left the scene back in the mid nineties my allegiance has always been with McLaren. 

Who would you rate as the greatest McLaren racing driver in the team’s history and why? 

Wow, that’s a difficult one. When a team has had pretty much all the best drivers in the world in their cars at one time or another, how can you decide? Working with several of them on the book has given me the opportunity to get to know some of them a lot more and each of them has different strengths and weaknesses as a driver. I suppose Senna would always be high up there on my list, but just look at the others? Fittipaldi, Hunt, Lauda, Prost, Hakkinen and, of course, Lewis is climbing the ladder fast! 

Who would you rate as the greatest racing driver of all time in Formula 1 and why? 

Now that is even more difficult. It is so hard to compare drivers from different eras, but I would have to go for Jim Clark. In his years driving for Team Lotus he dominated not just in Formula 1 but won the Indy 500 and countless other races as well. 

Do you have a particular favourite car that is featured in the book? 

I always find it difficult to pick favourites from cars I have never driven or even been in so I would have to go for the McLaren F1 road car which I drove in Atlanta, Georgia. What an experience! Having said that, my favourite car that I photographed for the book would have to be Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1974 McLaren M23, one of the most successful GP cars of all time. 

It took three years to produce the book. Could you explain the process for us from idea to print? 

Have you got time for this? I sat down with Martin Whitmarsh at the 2005 Goodwood Festival of Speed and explained my idea for the definitive book on McLaren. After agreeing on a concept and format for the book we started preliminary designs for the page layouts and tried to figure out just how many cars were going to be featured. 

I then spent 18 months tracking down and photographing one example of each car to be covered in the book, whilst at the same time working on research for each of them. Finding archive images for every car was also a long job but we had a lot of help from a couple of the big photo libraries. Selecting the studio images to be used from the 12,000 or so we took was quite a task and after working alongside our in-house Photoshop expert for many tens of hours to make sure the images were perfect, and then getting everything together into the layouts was almost a relief! 

The final stage of checking the proofs and copy is always tough and in this book was no exception. We spent almost a month going over first, second and, for some pages, even a third set of proofs but I hope you agree it was all worth it in the end. Once the proofs were approved I had to go to the printers in China to see the first pages on the press. From there it was just a matter of getting back to the office and waiting for the first advance copies to arrive by air; simple really!    

How up close and personal did you get to the cars themselves? 

As well as writing all the text I also took all the studio style photographs that appear in the book. Having pushed, pulled and manhandled every one of the 94 cars I photographed onto my huge white background sheets, I think that qualifies as ‘up close and personal.’ 

Did you meet Lewis Hamilton and if so, what is he like? 

Yes, I was introduced to Lewis when he agreed to write the introduction to chapter 5 (the 2000s) in the book. He wrote some great words for me and, having met him several times since, he has always expressed an interest in how the book is going. 

What’s the next project for you? 

I am working with Lotus on a book about their new car, the Evora, which should be ready early next year as well as another book on Jim Clark. The big news however is that McLaren have asked me to work on another book with them. Due out in 2010 this will be a companion volume to McLaren – The Cars 1964-2008.

 If you still don't have your copy of this fabulous publication then go to www.coteriepress.com to order. 

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