Eric Dymock

Eric Dymock (born 16 April 1934) is a motoring writer and Editorial Director of Dove Publishing Ltd. He trained as an engineer and became a freelance journalist in the 1950s and a staff writer in 1962. He has written more than two dozen books, available in paper and electronic formats, and has worked in radio and television. For the Dove Publishing website he writes the often nostalgic Eric's Blog under the sub-heading, "Best read in a comfortable chair, with a wee dram of scotch close at hand."
==Early life==
Dymock was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire on 16 April 1934 to Robert Craig Dymock (1892–1977), "a former kirk elder and a slightly stern though mellowing Presbyterian",Jim Clark, by Eric Dymock, p.10 Executive Director of the steel company David Colville & Sons,Colvilles and the Scottish Steel Industry by Professor Peter Payne (Clarendon Press 1979, ) p.407 and Ellen Miller Dymock (née Young) (1894–1990). He attended the town's Dalziel High School, where he was assured by a science teacher that space flight was impossible. A more important influence was James K Scobbie, who held the post of Rector from 1957 to 1974 but during Dymock's time worked in the English department. In a 10 May 2017 posting on Eric's Blog he was quoted as saying, "Find an essay subject Eric Dymock can't bring cars into." On receiving a copy of World Champion with Jackie Stewart in 1970, he told Dymock that he was the first of his former pupils to become an author.
==Journalism==
After working as an engineer, in a period interrupted, by national service, Dymock became a freelance motoring journalist in the late 1950s. His mother was "deeply suspicious" of something she did not consider a proper job, and is reported to have said, "Eric has gone freelance for the moment, but I'm sure something will turn up." Despite her concerns, Dymock's output was sufficient for him to become a founding member, in 1961, and later Honorary Life Member of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers.
On 6 July 1962, Gordon Hailey, Director of Temple Press Ltd, wrote to Dymock, offering him a job as road tester on The Motor starting in September of that year (see photo). To staff journalism he would later add careers as a broadcaster and author. In 1978, Dymock and Clive Jacobs produced Competition Cassettes, covering that year's Grand Prix races along with the Le Mans 24 Hours, the BRDC International Trophy and the Lombard RAC Rally.
Before his move into journalism, Dymock met a future F1 World Champion about whom he would later write a biography: "I met Jim Clark in Edinburgh in the spring of 1955, at a briefing of the nascent Ecurie Agricole, a motor sporting team of farmers in the forthcoming Scottish Rally. I was not a member, I was not a farmer or even a journalist; I was co-driving a rival car and it seemed a good idea to evaluate the opposition."
==Awards==
Dymock has won four Jet Media Excellence awards including the overall one in 1988. His books Saab, Half A Century of Achievement (1997) and The Complete Bentley (2009) each earned him the Guild of Motoring Writers' Montagu Award, while the first edition of his Jim Clark biography was the runner-up publication in 1997. He won the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers' Jim Clark Award, presented to Scots who achieve excellence in the field of motoring, in 2004, and the ASMW President's Award in 2014.
==Books==
Dove Publishing books:
Mercedes-Benz the Art of Alan Fearnley (1990) 
Rover, The First Ninety Years (1993) 
Honda the UK Story (1995) 
Saab, Half a Century of Achievement (1997) 
Jim Clark, Tribute to a Champion (1997) 
The Audi File (two editions 1997, 1998)
The Renault File (1998) 
The Vauxhall File (two editions 1999–2007)
The MG File (2001) 
The Jaguar File (three editions 1998, 2001, 2004)
High Speed Diary, Life and Times of Reginald Ellis Tongue (2002) 
The Ford in Britain File (two editions 2002, 2006) and The Ford in Britain Centenary File (2011) 
The Land Rover File, (2006) 
The Land Rover File 65 Anniversary Edition (2014) 
The Complete Bentley (2008) 
Vauxhall Model by Model from 1903 (2016) 
Jim Clark, Tribute to a Champion (2017) 
Dove international editions:
Rover Die Ersten Neunzig Jahre (1993) German
Rover Quatre-vingt-dix ans d’histoire (1993) French
Saab 50 ǺR PǺ VÄG (1997) Swedish
Saab Ein Halbes Jahrhundert des Fortschritts (1997) German
Jim Clark Racing Legend (2003) USA
Land Rover File 65th Anniversary by 艾瑞克·戴莫克. (2014) Chinese
Dove Digital ebooks (Adobe and Kindle ISBNs):
Jim Clark, Tribute to a Champion (2011) 978-0-9554909-4-1 and 978-0-9554909-5-8
The Complete Bentley (2011) 978-0-9554909-9-6 and 978-0-9554909-6-5
Sports Car Classics Vol 1 (2012) 978-0-9569533-1-5 and 978-0-9569533-0-8
Sports Car Classics Vol 2 (2012) 978-0-9569533-3-9 and 978-0-9569533-2-2
Jaguar, all models since 1922 (2012) 0-9554909-7-9 and 0-9554909-8-7
Eric Dymock on Cars 1989 (2012) 978-0-9569533-8-4
Eric Dymock on Cars 1990 (2012) 978-0-9569533-4-6
Eric Dymock on Cars 1991 (2012) 978-0-9569533-5-3
Eric Dymock on Cars 1992 (2012) 978-0-9569533-7-7
The Motorists’ Bedside Blook (2012)
Books not published by Dove:
Scotland by Car (David & Charles 1968) 
World Champion with Jackie Stewart (Pelham, 1970) 
The World of Racing Cars (Hamlyn 1972) 
The Guinness Guides to Grand Prix Motor Racing (Guinness Superlatives, 1980, 1981)
Postwar Sports Cars (Ebury, 1981) 
Austin-Healey Sprite, MG Midget, a Collector's Guide (Motor Racing Publications 1981, and Heel Verlag 1991)
BMW, A Celebration (Pavilion UK ; Orion USA; Heyne Verlag 1990)
Ecurie Ecosse (PJ Publishing 2007)
==References==
==External links==
* About — ERIC DYMOCK MOTOR BOOKS
* About Eric Dymock - Amazon.com
* Eric Dymock on linkedin
* 
* Eric Dymock Books | List of books by author Eric Dymock
* Vauxhall: Model by Model from 1903 (Eric Dymock Motor Books)
* Eric Dymock books and biography | Waterstones
* Eric Dymock | Book Depository
Category:1934 births
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century Scottish writers
Category:Scottish journalists
Category:Scottish sportswriters
Category:20th-century Scottish writers