"I Just Made the Tea" by Di Spires book review

The notes I take while reading a book usually make for dry reading. Not so with Di Spires’ enormously entertaining “I Just Made the Tea”.

“Mario Andretti’s wife stuck in toilet”, reads one. “Driver’s wig came off in balaclava” and “cleaned his ear out with a Twiglet, which someone ate” are others.

Di Spires spent three decades serving up tea, sympathy and a lot more besides to the great and good in Formula 1. Friend and surrogate mother to many of the drivers, her recollections bring alive the human side of the sport we see too little of.

Her memoirs are packed with amusing stories about drivers such as Michael Schumacher (who supplied a foreword), Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and many others.

Within its pages you’ll learn which driver dined on steak and red wine before races and the strange sights on James Hunt’s “naughty tour” of Amsterdam.

There are some inescapably sad moments as well, not least the passage on Elio de Angelis, who chatted with them in their motorhome before getting in his car for the last time at Paul Ricard in 1986.

By that time Spires and her husband Stuart had worked for several F1 teams including Lotus and were now with Benetton. They witnessed the traumas of 1994 first hand including the effect the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna had on Schumacher, who after the Imola podium ceremony sat in their kitchen telling manager Willi Weber “I am just not going to do this any more”.

The author also has a few plain-spoken observations about moments when, in her words “we just should not have been there” in a particular country at a particular time: such as in Mexico following its 1986 earthquake, or Brazil when the country was being ravaged by massive inflation.

But for the most part “I Just Made the Tea” is a candid and highly amusing read. I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud while reading a book about Formula One.

I must admit I found the cover, which features a particularly unflattering cartoon of Senna, decidedly unattractive. But should you happen to feel the same way I urge you to get past it: there’s a warm and delightfully funny read waiting for you inside.

F1 Fanatic rating

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Haynes are running a competition to win a selection of their recent F1 titles which you can enter here. You can read reviews of several of their recent books here.

I Just Made the Tea: Tales from 30 years inside Formula 1

Author: Di Spires with Bernard Ferguson
Publisher: Haynes
Published: 2012
Price: £17.99
ISBN: 978857332233

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12 comments on ““I Just Made the Tea” reviewed”

Nixon (@nixon)
15th July 2012, 12:48

Looks like a must read.
1. Mike (@mike)
  15th July 2012, 15:12
  
  Agreed! I’ll be getting it I’m quite certain :D
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
15th July 2012, 12:56

Definitely going to pick up a copy of this, sounds like my kind of thing!
ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
15th July 2012, 13:00

Looks like I’ve got something to add to my wishlist :)
JPQuesado (@joao-pedro-cq)
15th July 2012, 14:59

Just wish they would sell it in Portugal!
1. Jorge H. (@kobe08)
  15th July 2012, 15:27
  
  +1 :D
  1. raelene
    15th July 2012, 16:54
    
    i ught from amazon..shipped to Singapore in a week
    1. JPQuesado (@joao-pedro-cq)
      15th July 2012, 19:47
      
      Try to convinc emy mother to buy things online! Believe me, I’ve used all that I could, and she won’t!
raelene
15th July 2012, 16:52

I’ve read it and enjoyed it…however sometimes she frustratingly (fr the reader) cut a story short to protect the person…would have liked to know all the details
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
15th July 2012, 19:15

Certainly sounds different! Shall keep an eye out for it.
Parikshit Rane (@parikshitrane)
16th July 2012, 10:31

Thanks Keith for reviewing the books…… seems to be a good one.
Just Ordered should be receiving it in a weeks time in India
hobo (@hobo)
17th July 2012, 14:05

Either it was a small first order or this book is doing well. Amazon US says it only had 2 left in stock and I just ordered one.

Thanks for the write-up, Keith.