Well having just read Conspiracy of Secrets it confirmed many of my suspicions about the public facade that Stanley portrayed. As a cynical and long-term amateur genealogist, nothing surprises me about anyone - I've dug up a few "interesting" family secrets from the not too distant past. Even so, this book definitely has a "wow" factor!
I suppose one could forgive Louis Stanley for the joke which Stanley-BRM was / became - at least one could say he tried to run an F1 team even if he was totally misguided and incompetent - but on the face of it, it appeared to do little harm to anyone, and provided me and my then teenage friends with some light relief in the 1970s!
One could almost forgive him for covering up his past - if it was to protect the reputations of members of his family, not that I think any child needs to justify the actions of its parents before it was born, no matter who they are! I could not, however, forgive him for the way he consistently manipulated everyone around him, stripped BRM of their reputation (and money...), nor for the way treated his stepchildren or his wife. It saddens me that someone who could have been remembered for a lot of good work, e.g. on motor racing safety, and for his many great gestures of assistance in times of tragedy in the sport, could come to treat his dying wife and family in such a manner. What spite!
We all have this one life which we are born into, for better or worse, with the opportunity to do good or evil by other people. No matter that Bobbie Neate understandably highlights his darker side; it wouldn't have taken much on his part to change his family's attitude towards him. I'm sure if his actions at the end of Jean Stanley's life had been different the chances are the book would never have been written.
Now that Volume 4 CAN be written, I shall await it eagerly!
Edited by Nick Planas, 28 April 2012 - 21:41.