"Sir Lewis" – a new book about the seven-time world champion

      In early March, a new book about Lewis Hamilton, entitled "Sir Lewis," appeared on the shelves of UK bookstores. In the original, her full name is Sir Lewis.: The definitive biography, i.e. Michael Sawyer's creation claims to be a "full-fledged" biography of the famous racing driver.

      Previously, Sawyer, an associate professor of African-American literature and culture at the University of Pittsburgh, had already published biographical books, but their heroes were mostly politicians, and he took up the topic of motorsport for the first time. As far as can be understood from the abstract, the book tells about Hamilton's rise to fame, but not only racing, because his life interests are much broader.

      However, more than enough biographies of Lewis have been released over the years of his career, and a dozen published in different years can be found in international online stores. They were also published in Russian, and now another similar book has appeared.

      The annotation to it contains the following somewhat pretentious lines: "As Hamilton approaches the twilight of his racing career, this detailed study is devoted to his enduring legacy. His influence extends far beyond his collection of championship trophies.

      The culmination of the book was perhaps the final act of Hamilton's career – his attempt to win his 8th title behind the wheel of a car built by the legendary Ferrari team. And then this record-breaking achievement will be the final confirmation of his greatness."

      Those who have already seen the work of Michael Sawyer note that this is a really detailed and in-depth study. The author of "Sir Lewis" writes that he has attempted "a critical analysis of all the public institutions in which Hamilton was involved from a racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and class perspective."

      This very enumeration suggests that Sawyer's 250-page study is not quite typical for sports biographies and is intended for readers who really think, who are interested not only in points and seconds. But, perhaps, it may seem to someone that the lack of original interviews in the book is its obvious disadvantage. Moreover, it is not the only one, since the text bears some traces of haste – it was probably necessary to have time to publish the work before the start of the season.

      The depiction of some of Hamilton's rivals is overly sketchy, primarily about Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, for whom the author has no particular sympathy, and he does not hide it.

      Readers also drew attention to strange mistakes that are definitely on the conscience of the literary editor and proofreaders. What's worth just such a blunder: somewhere in the text, the author claims that Alonso won both of his titles with the Williams team. And in some cases, even the names of the teams are spelled incorrectly.

      In general, on the one hand, "Sir Lewis" is a curious book in its own way, on the other hand, it is not without flaws.

      In the end, we can quote the author of one of the reviews, who wrote literally the following: such in-depth research is necessary, "but it is also necessary that their authors express their thoughts more clearly, and in this regard, the book too often falls short of the required level."

      However, these flaws did not prevent Pan McMillan publishing house from immediately releasing the book in German through one of its partners.