[Magazines] Nigel Roebuck

[Thundersports]

Having not bought Autosport for a while now (there is another thread for Autosport) I hear the great man is no longer writing for them? Is this true and if so why?

[ghinzani]

Theyve finally cottoned onto his recycling scheme?

[Alfa Fan]

Unfortunately his colomns do still appear. The problem with them is once you see the topic, you already know what he's going to say.

[Thundersports]

Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

Unfortunately his colomns do still appear. The problem with them is once you see the topic, you already know what he's going to say.

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

Unfortunately his colomns do still appear. The problem with them is once you see the topic, you already know what he's going to say.

deja vu?

[Hazza]

I guess I havn't read enough to become bored with him.

I still think he's great.

[JimW]

Must say that his column is one of the things which makes me buy Autosport from time to time.

Jim

[Knowlesy]

Roebuck is the reason I buy Motorsport and is a major factor in my continued subscription with Autosport. So I am sad he is leaving.

Whether I agree or disagree with his point of view, he is still terrific reading and one of very few who can bring the sport and its personalities alive.

[PK Kart]

He is, without doubt a brilliant and extremely knowledgable writer whose passion and love of the sport are obvious.
The one thing I can't stand though is when he brings politics into his columns and moans about Blair, brown, new labour etc. I may well agree, but it aint what I buy Autosport for.

[Knowlesy]

To be honest that has never bothered me although I can understand why it would annoy some (no, actually, many) people.

[Adam43]

Long may he continue to have the odd line about the government to put it in context of modern day. Or just to have a joke. I may well disagree with some, but I like it. Hopefully his style won't have to be spun like a Labour party press release in the future.

Roebuck wrote the a lot of the season review in Autosport this year. Although I presume he didn't write the part that had Mark Webber fuel corrected to 5th on a grid. (What coefficients, was everyone fuel corrected or just Mark, what certainty is attached to that value, etc, blummin' etc.)

I had heard that Roebuck was going, but haven't seen confirmation or even a date.

[Super Hans]

It is true that he often repeats certain themes or anecdotes in his columns, but when you write a column every week regarding F1, this is bound to happen from time to time. I've heard rumours that he is leaving Autosport, and I will be genuinely saddened if he does.

[Woolley]

I hadn't heard, but if Nigel's leaving then the last reason I've clung on to the subscription has gone to. Lucid, erudite, knowledgeable and with a passion for the sport he is pretty much the last vestige of the magazine I used to buy.

[Thundersports]

Towards the end of my Autopsort reading days I found I was only reading Nigel and Marcus Pye which I couldn't justify the cost or waste of paper of the rest of it.................
ps Simon Arron in Motorsport News is the stuff of Roebuck type legend with his pithy F1 driver reports worth the money alone.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Simon Arron in Motorsport News is the stuff of Roebuck type legend with his pithy F1 driver reports worth the money alone.

Always raises a chuckle or two, his verdict on Ralf is usually accurate

[Born Racer]

I've always enjoyed his columns. Yes, he does cover some topics again and again, but I feel this is usually from the perspective of new events occuring. For instance, he'd often comment on Schumacher's driving ethics, and when Schumacher did something to again make you question them, Nigel Roebuck would bring up old ground in the column, but also add the new information into his argument.

I always feel in that way he's a bit like us forum users, you know, re-hashing old arguments with the perspective of time going by and new events taking place

[futuretiger9]

Nigel Roebuck has also written some good books. Two in particular stand out - "Inside Formula 1" is a collection of his best Fifth Column pieces from around 1980-1988. A later work was "Chasing The Title". Both are worth getting hold of.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Towards the end of my Autopsort reading days I found I was only reading Nigel and Marcus Pye which I couldn't justify the cost or waste of paper of the rest of it.................
ps Simon Arron in Motorsport News is the stuff of Roebuck type legend with his pithy F1 driver reports worth the money alone.

Roebuck used to be brilliant, but as his mates left the sport he seemed to lose the connection with drivers that used to make his work special - and I think his reputation was very tarnished by the hugely pro-Prost anti-Senna polemics of the 88-91 era (his attempt to recast them both as flawed geniuses just doesn't hold water).

Erudite? Yes. Aware that there's a world outside racing? Yes. Strong opinions? Yes. All good things. Inside F1 (a collection of his Fifth Columns) and Grand Prix Greats are superb books, wonderfully readable. But they were written before the rot set in.

But it became very hard to read Roebuck over the last decade or so - his race reports were perfunctory with more emphasis on politics (racing or real), and Fifth Column was often entertaining but usually just a fossick in the gander-bag of his memories - to reuse one of my own clichés China Daily apparently used to keep stock paragraphs from Mao's speeches typeset so they could just paste them together; NSR seemed to do that with his reminiscences.

He's still capable of writing beautifully, but I think he got so disillusioned with contemporary F1 that his whole approach to journalism suffered badly.

I hope that NSR at the Green'un will be able to write at length, go back and revisit his friends and his memories, and become the writer he used to be. (It's very amusing reading Competition Car from '73 or so - Roebuck was a cynical soul then but there was a lightness of touch that's disappeared from his writing over the decades. There's definite evidence of this in some of his contributions to MS over the last few years. Can we start the Campaign For Real Roebuck?

What I hope never to see again is Roebuck using his column to make laboured and obvious points about his bugbears of the New Labour government and smoking bans. While I loathe the former and think both are fundamental infringement of civil liberties, I don't use word-count that should be about racing to pontificate on them

If I want blistering, acerbic cynicism these days Mike Lawrence is the man, anyway - absolute stark raving genius.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Always raises a chuckle or two, his verdict on Ralf is usually accurate

I was very amused to see that in one of those FIA/AMD surveys, Franck Montagny was a more popular Grand Prix driver than Ralf Schumacher. Says a lot....

There's a lovely Mike Lawrence column on pitpass.com called "Ralf's A Little S**t". You may or may not agree

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Pete Fenelon

What I hope never to see again is Roebuck using his column to make laboured and obvious points about his bugbears of the New Labour government and smoking bans. While I loathe the former and think both are fundamental infringement of civil liberties, I don't use word-count that should be about racing to pontificate on them

Generally used to not only demonstrate New Labours failings, but also a similar aspect that has crept into modern motor racing.

Perhaps some New Labour type of spin or censorship is needed to remove things you don't want him to write?

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...07#post2065707

[Thundersports]

I chuckled a few years ago when for a few weeks a picture of Roebuck in his Autosport column was one of him enjoying a cigarette................

[Adam43]

Yes, it was probably something that upset Gordon Brown and it won't be soon until New Labour ban photos of people smoking.

[Thundersports]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Yes, it was probably something that upset Gordon Brown and it won't be soon until New Labour ban photos of people smoking.

Must find one of me enjoying a good smoke to annoy him!

[futuretiger9]

Originally Posted by futuretiger9

Nigel Roebuck has also written some good books. Two in particular stand out - "Inside Formula 1" is a collection of his best Fifth Column pieces from around 1980-1988. A later work was "Chasing The Title". Both are worth getting hold of.

I forgot to mention "Grand Prix Greats". Roebuck also wrote a book about Mario Andretti, and may also have done a biography of Chris Amon (?).

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by Pete Fenelon

Roebuck used to be brilliant, but as his mates left the sport he seemed to lose the connection with drivers that used to make his work special - and I think his reputation was very tarnished by the hugely pro-Prost anti-Senna polemics of the 88-91 era (his attempt to recast them both as flawed geniuses just doesn't hold water).

Erudite? Yes. Aware that there's a world outside racing? Yes. Strong opinions? Yes. All good things. Inside F1 (a collection of his Fifth Columns) and Grand Prix Greats are superb books, wonderfully readable. But they were written before the rot set in.

But it became very hard to read Roebuck over the last decade or so - his race reports were perfunctory with more emphasis on politics (racing or real), and Fifth Column was often entertaining but usually just a fossick in the gander-bag of his memories - to reuse one of my own clichés China Daily apparently used to keep stock paragraphs from Mao's speeches typeset so they could just paste them together; NSR seemed to do that with his reminiscences.

He's still capable of writing beautifully, but I think he got so disillusioned with contemporary F1 that his whole approach to journalism suffered badly.

I hope that NSR at the Green'un will be able to write at length, go back and revisit his friends and his memories, and become the writer he used to be. (It's very amusing reading Competition Car from '73 or so - Roebuck was a cynical soul then but there was a lightness of touch that's disappeared from his writing over the decades. There's definite evidence of this in some of his contributions to MS over the last few years. Can we start the Campaign For Real Roebuck?

What I hope never to see again is Roebuck using his column to make laboured and obvious points about his bugbears of the New Labour government and smoking bans. While I loathe the former and think both are fundamental infringement of civil liberties, I don't use word-count that should be about racing to pontificate on them

If I want blistering, acerbic cynicism these days Mike Lawrence is the man, anyway - absolute stark raving genius.

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