Woolf Barnato - Man About Town - Paperback

by Anthony Davis (Author)

Based on true facts and characters, Woolf Barnato inherited a fortune when his father, Barney Barnato, the diamond millionaire, died mysteriously in 1897 when Woolf was two years old. Woolf left university to serve in the Royal Field Artillery in France, Belgium and Egypt during the First World War, rising to the rank of Captain. Obsessed with racing fast cars, he saved Bentley Motor Cars from bankruptcy in 1926 taking over the company. Woolf became well-known as one of the Bentley Boys, a cadre of young wealthy men who raced Bentley cars. He won the Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Race, three consecutive years. As a result he was considered the best racing driver of his time.

Author Biography

Anthony Davis has a passion for 19th century photographs and has been dealing in them for more than 27 years from his website www.19cphoto.com . Specializing in original photographs of India and the Far East. Fascinated with history of the 19th and 20th century, this is his second book about the Barnato family. The first, King of Diamonds - The Life of Barney Barnato, was published in 2014. Educated in England, Anthony moved to the U.S.A. in 1978. Living in southern California, he facilitates a local writer's group in his community and does the same on cruise ships, having introduced a writer's group on Cunard's Queen Victoria in 2015. Anthony does a large amount of research into his characters, striving for the smallest details to make his story come alive. He has had great fun writing about Woolf Barnato and his father Barney Barnato who have faded into history. Barney came from the poorest of beginnings and became one of the richest men in the world in the late 1800s. Woolf, who inherited part of the fortune his father had made in South African diamond and gold mining, went on to own Bentley Motors until it was taken over by Rolls-Royce. Anthony is distantly related to the Barnato family through his mother's line. His father started tracing his family tree decades ago and managed to go back to the early 17th century. Since that time Anthony has been able to trace his family back more than 2000 years and he is a descendant of King David.