‘Perry McCarthy does for Formula One what Bill Bryson did for travel writing. But beneath the black humour and wisecracks – funny enough to make you laugh out loud in public – lies an inspiring and at times poignant tale of that rarest kind of racer: one who never gave up and was, literally, prepared to die trying.’

‘Perry McCarthy has always been excellent at describing his career in a series of memorable anecdotes, and here they are, strung together in book form. The reader is frequently left racked with sympathy at the author’s outrageous misfortune, or in convulsive sobs of laughter. This is an utterly fantastic read.’

‘Sometimes books, like cigarette packets, should come with a surgeons health warning. Flat Out Flat Broke is a case in point, not just because it contains photographs of the author in the long forgotten days of his early childhood, but because it will make your stomach ache from laughing.’

A fantastic funny story

‘The James Hunt impressions, the Ayrton Senna pizza delivery, the Rat Pack stories - the laughs come thick and fast in Perry McCarthy’s fantastic new book, Flat Out Flat Broke…’