Motor-sport loving writer finishes book
A part-time writer and fulltime car enthusiast has written his first ‘‘proper book’’ and found his passion.
Gordon Campbell’s day job is with the South Taranaki District Council, but he enjoys writing magazine articles in his free time.
‘‘I’ve always been a car fanatic and now I’m quite fanatical about these motorsport stories being recorded,’’ Campbell said.
His book, The Master Mechanic, is the story of Bruce Wilson from Hunterville, a race car mechanic in the 20th century.
Campbell originally went to see Wilson for a magazine article and said he felt it was a story that should be recorded.
‘‘I came away thinking ’oh god, I’d love to write a book about that guy’ but didn’t have the guts to ask,’’ Campbell said.
However, to his pleasure, the next time they met Wilson suggested that Campbell write a biography and three and a half years later, the book was complete.
‘‘In the past two years it basically just took over my life outside of work,’’ Campbell said.
‘‘But to me it had become very important.’’
Campbell said The Master Mechanic really does capture the life of the ‘‘modest, reticent, older Kiwi’’ man Wilson was.
‘‘I had to rely on other people for a lot of the information because Bruce wasn’t very forthcoming, just because it was against his nature.’’
Although the book is about Bruce Wilson, a lot of it is also about what other people did.
‘‘I’m hoping that people will remember when they read the book that Bruce Wilson was in the background, because mechanics are always in the background, and those people wouldn’t have achieved what they did without him,’’ he said.
Wilson died around Christmas but luckily the book launched a month earlier and he got to see it complete.
‘‘We had the book launch on November 19 and Bruce was bright, he was in good form that day, but he wasn’t well and you could tell he wasn’t going to be around much longer,’’ Campbell said.
Therefore, he made a ‘‘wide bookmark’’ that added a few details about his death and ‘‘finished the story’’.
The Master Mechanic is in Paper Plus stores throughout Taranaki.