James Taylor remembers very well the disappointment among his petrol-head friends when the XJ-S was announced in 1975.

It was not a replacement for the legendary E-type; its colours were uninspired; and its interior was drab. All credit, then, to those people at Jaguar who truly believed in the car and, over a period of nearly 20 years, turned the ugly duckling into a swan. From the moment the XJ-S HE arrived in 1981, there seemed to be renewed hope, and from then on, the car went from strength to strength to become the much-admired grand tourer it always should have been.

The book contains a timeline of the key events in the history of the XJ-S and an overview of the evolution of the XJ-S from the XJ27 prototype. This book includes; appendices covering identification/serial numbers, UK showroom prices through the years and sales in the US by year; highly detailed chapters containing production figures, paint and trim options by year and technical specs; a chapter on buying and owning an XJ-S.

James Taylor truly tells the complete story here of the Jaguar XJ-S in his informative style. It will be of great interest to all motoring and Jaguar enthusiasts and is superbly illustrated with 192 colour and black & white photos. James Taylor has been writing professionally about road transport since the late 1970s, his primary interest is in those models that made the British motor industry great.