''The Green Helmet'' is a 1957 novel by the Australian author

Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...

. It was the author's eighth novel.

Synopsis

Brothers Ham and Taz Rafferty are professional race car drivers whose father was killed during the

Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts :it:Franco Mazzotti, Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi. It took place in Italy 24 times f ...

, a 1000-mile endurance race through Italy. The boys' mother extracts a promise from Taz that he will allow Ham to drive while he bides his time. But tension builds between the two when Ham refuses to retire after a near-disaster. An American tire manufacturer contracts Ham to race on his tires and a romance ensues between Ham and the American's daughter.

Background

Cleary had written a book about Australian politics, ''The Mayor's Nest'', but his English publisher was worried it would not appeal to an international audience, and suggested a book on motor racing. Cleary and his wife had lived in Italy for a year and became familiar with the motor races there such as the

. He had not written in six months, so moved to Valencia, a small town in Spain where he rented a villa. He wrote the novel in twenty days at a chapter a day.

Publishing history

After its initial publication in UK by Collins in 1957, it was reprinted as follows: * 1958, USA,

William Morrow and Company William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation (now News Corp) in 1999. The ...

* 1963, Australia, Howitz * 1970, UK, Collins * 1988, UK, Fontana

Critical reception

The book became a best seller on its publication in 1957. Cleary says Reader's Digest paid an advance of 20,000 pounds for their editions.Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

''Kirkus Reviews'' was not impressed with the work: "Superb suspense in the racing aspects; the romance is contrived and two-dimensional." A reviewer in '' The Bulletin'' found a lot more to like about the author's "swift and clear presentations of scenes in high-class English pubs, New York pent-house apartments, American factories, English country places! Writers with more to say, or less, might well admire the hard-gained discipline of his writing."

Film adaptation

The novel was adapted as a film of the same name in 1961, directed by Michael Forlong with a screenplay by Jon Cleary.

References