Ebury Spotlight drives away with Harris’ motoring memoir

Ebury Spotlight has acquired Chris Harris’ motoring memoir, Variable Valve Timings.

Senior editorial director Lorna Russell acquired world all-language rights from Emily Rees Jones, senior agent at M&C Saatchi Merlin, with publication scheduled for 9th November 2023.

Harris is an automotive journalist, amateur racing driver and TV presenter. He has worked as a reviewer and columnist for many automotive magazines including Autocar, Evo and Japolnik. He has appeared on “Top Gear” since 2016, and became one of the three main presenters in 2017. Harris also has his own web series, “Chris Harris on Cars”, now hosted by Topgear.com. This is his first book.

The publisher says: “Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it ’unhinged geekery’, but to the rest of the world it’s infectious enthusiasm, adrenalin-fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity. Then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car. And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his life-long obsession with the automobile, along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to build up the stock.

“From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit ’Top Gear’ studio, Chris reveals how all things motoring became his life’s driving force.”

Lorna Russell said: “Coming from the pen of peerless, self-styled ‘car tragic’ Chris Harris, Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrol-fuelled joy, told from the heart with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This memoir is a true one-off, just like its legendary author.”