Showing Cheltenham's Racing Heroes in Old Photographs (Britain in Old Photographs) by Peter Gill

Cheltenham's Racing Heroes is Peter Gill's second book taking as its themes his home town of Cheltenham and the sport of kings. Here he provides a detailed account of the riding careers of 10 carefully selected jockeys from both flat and national hunt racing. All have a connection of some sort with Cheltenham, starting with the triumphs and tragedies of Cheltenham-born Fred Archer and finishing with the magical Gold Cup successes of the renowned amateur jockey Jim Wilson and Little Owl.

A wealth of information on horses ridden and races won and lost is used to track the successes and disappointments which characterise the careers of these top jockeys, encompassing along the way some of the most famous races of the 20th century. The added dimension of what those major events meant personally to the jockeys, alongside Gills account of the expectations of some owners and trainers, brings these histories vividly to life. Dorothy Paget's extreme demands of her fabulous chaser, Golden Miller, are as shocking to the modern reader as some of the injuries with which jockeys were allowed, if not expected, to ride in the early part of this century. The wealth of information in this book reveals some wonderful racing lives, and leaves an abiding message: a career as a jockey is not for the faint-hearted. --Louise Ellison