Death Drive
There Are No Accidents
‘Reading this book, one quickly gets accustomed to superb writing. Words cascade forth in perfect pitch and harmony on page after glorious page.’
— Gerard DeGroot, The Times
No other manufactured object has the same disturbing allure as the motor car. More emotions are embodied in the automobile than any other product: vanity, cupidity, greed, social competitiveness and cultural modeling. Occasionally this perverse promise ends in catastrophe. The car crash is a defining phenomenon of popular culture. Death Drive is both an appreciative essay about the historic place of the automobile in the modern imagination and an exploration of the circumstances of multiple celebrity car crashes, from Isadora Duncan to Helmut Newton. En route the narrative traces one very big arc – the role of the car in extending or creating the personality of a celebrity – and concludes by confronting the imminent death of the car itself. This new edition of Stephen Bayley’s critically acclaimed work has been expanded to include the deaths of the architect Aldo Rossi, and two late-twentieth-century cultural icons, Princess Diana and Ayrton Senna.
Stephen Bayley is an author, critic, columnist, consultant, broadcaster, curator and founding director of the influential Design Museum. Over the past forty years his writing has changed the way the world thinks about design.
Tom Wolfe on Stephen Bayley: ‘I don’t know anybody with more interesting observations about style, taste and contemporary design’.
‘Death Drive is a must for petrol-heads. The range of cultural cross-reference and automotive detail is positively epicurean.’
— Jay Merrick, The Independent
‘Akin to Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Death Drive is an autoerotic Babylon that never ends well.’
— Ray Edgar, The Age, 3 June 2016
‘Albert Camus once remarked that there’s “nothing more absurd than to die in a car accident”. That was before his car hit a tree at 80mph. Death Drive – a compendium of stories about famous people killed stupidly in cars – oozes absurdity. Stephen Bayley recounts delightfully grotesque tales about celebrities done in by trees, by lampposts, or by nonentities in ancient Chevys. A design masterpiece, this book combines exquisite prose with stylish presentation – the cars are described more lovingly than the people who perished in them. Like a Bugatti, Death Drive recalls a time when books and cars were beautiful.’
— The Times, Books of the Year, 26 November 2016
- Author
- Stephen Bayley
- Designer
- Jean-Michel Dentand
Hardcover
21 × 16cm
8¼ × 6¼ in
256pp
80 duotone and colour illustrations
£20
|
$30
ISBN 978-1-911422-50-1
Press
- Mirror Mirror
TANK Magazine, 24 November 2016 - Wenn Stars verunglücken, wächst ihre Legende
WELT, 11 October 2016 - Smashing stuff…London’s art world wakes up with a bang
Apollo, 27 September 2016 - Stephen Bayley on CRASHED CARS and the DEATH OF THE MODERN ERA
032c Workshop, 16 September 2016 - When the Devil Drives
Leither Magazine, 25 August 2016 - Summery studies: unwind in the sun with the Wallpaper* book edit
Wallpaper, 21 June 2016 - Death Drive sifts through the captivating wreckage of celebrity car crashes
The Age, 03 June 2016 - Rick Poynor — Stephen Bayley: Death Drive
Design Observer, 02 April 2016 - From James Dean to Grace Kelly - 9 iconic celebrity car crash deaths
Mirror Online, 01 April 2016 - Surveying the sad wreckage of our motor mythology
The Sunday Times, 27 March 2016 - Death Drive: There are No Accidents by Stephen Bayley
The Times, 12 March 2016 - A books worth reading
Business Money, 10 March 2016 - Death Drive: There Are No Accidents by Stephen Bayley, book review
The Independent, 03 March 2016
Related news
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12 March 2016 - Book Launch: Death Drive – There are no Accidents
07 February 2016