- Source: The Green Helmet (novel)
The Green Helmet is a 1957 novel by the Australian author Jon Cleary. 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, 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 Mille Miglia. 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
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.
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.
See also
1957 in Australian literature