Jewels in the Crown: How Tata of India Transformed Britain's Jaguar and Land Rover

Worth every rupee. The book is well researched and is well presented, and a must read for every car enthusiast.

Although it doesn't have the thrill or depth of 'American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company', this is nevertheless an interesting glimpse into how the Tatas managed to turn around an iconic duo which were in doldrums and made them much more profitable and aspirational than the joke they call Tata Motors in India.

There was some confusion. I ordered the one in the image, but for some other book on Tata!

An excellent insight into all the stages of development in one book. Clear and easy to follow if you are an enthusiast or not.

I found the book interesting, factual, and delighted that the venture has been a great success. I have fond memories of the Rover P6, 3500V8 since I owned one in NZ and appreciated its design features. Tata did well to recognise the available talent and make use of it, while at the same time restraining any desires to interfere in management of the new Company. Having lived in India, I am well-aware of the Tata family and the benefactors that they have been to indigenous needs. May their success continue!A good read!

As a retired Jaguar trained apprentice working in a garage that were agents for both Jaguar and Rover way back in the sixties and seventies when the E-type, MkX , Mk 2 and XJ6 were the cars to have. I am naturally interested in both the past and future of these companies. The author is very obviously a very knowledgeable man within the motor industry and gives a very comprehensive account of JLR through its acquisition by Tata more or less up to this day but he also goes back and touches on the bad old British Leyland days and on to the pathway through Ford and BMW that these marques took. As a Jaguar nut I have read many good books on the car and this is another very good one to add to the collection.

This was a very interesting analysis of how Jaguar Land Rover turned around under the ownership and leadership of Tata to become a strong and profitable automotive company. There was a good analysis of key executives who contributed to this success.

I quite like the way the Jaguar advertisement campaign has harnessed the current Hollywood penchant for casting the baddy in just about every film (even those without Mel Gibson in!) as the English chap with the ‘plummy’ English accent.This book is not a bad read about the Tata transformation of a British automobile icon and how they painstakingly restored it to its rightful place amongst the panoply of car making greats. Though it’s a worthy read and I can wholeheartedly recommend it – I have to say that it just lacked a little passion and this is a shame, as I feel there is much here to be passionate about.The clue comes as far in as page 175 – the first paragraph where “the British don’t always recognise their assets” and “Britishness was a positive marketing proposition”. This is a shame, as my Dad who was not born an Englishman always bough British cars and I remember the day his 3.8 S-Type in ‘silver opalescent blue’ was delivered. I was a little boy at the time and was off school with an illness. The man delivered the car and my dad asked me to come with him for a drive. The slight ticking as the fuel pumps cut in. My Dad would always insist on waiting until the ticking had stopped before he fired the engine. The twin fuel tanks; on a long run he’d flick the little switch and the nice gauge would re-calibrate for the fresh tank; and the air vent that would rise just in front of the windscreen – presumably when the engine was hot. The gorgeous purring engine, which I assume was a straight six.More important than all those things, however, was the look on people’s faces as we swept by and that look was understood, as this book makes clear, not so much by the English, for it seems we are almost apologetic these days, cowed by people who are much more trendy, have a louder voice or a bigger film budget! and are more magnificent than we could ever hope to be – but by the Indians, who took what was there and nourished it back to its rightful place. Though the book dutifully reports what was done and something of how; it has failed to capture the essence that those in Tata understood, as much as my Dad did.For, those admiring looks went up into another level of magnitude when the E-type was released and those who understand its beauty like a Spitfire weaving a trail over Kent countryside will know that suddenly being bad is not such a terrible place to be. In any event JLR is back and long may that be so.