When I was a boy I got a book about a boy named Carlotti. The book is about Carlotti whose dream was to drive a racing car. The book was a translation from english to swedish. The english title was "Carlotti joins the team". The book was published in Sweden 1960. The author is Mike Hawthorn. I wonder if anybody knew if it is the real Mike Hawthorn or somebody else. The book has still a place in my bookshelf among other book about motorsport.

Yes it was written by the real Mike Hawthorn.
Here's a link:
http://www.mike-hawthorn.org.uk/books.php

But did he actually write the Carlotti books or where they ghosted by someone else?

Even at twelve-ish, the standard of writing struck me a fairly amateurish, so I'd guess they really were written by Mike himself. Credit where it's due, they weren't all that bad, but I think any ghost writer would have done a more polished job. Back then, if you were after reasonably convincing motor racing fiction, there wasn't much of a choice apart from comics, so I don't think there was anything around that was any better. A few years ago, I paid too much on eBay for my copies of Champion Year and Challenge Me the Race, and I wish I'd had the foresight to look after and hang onto my Carlotti books.

£22 (plus £3.35 p/p) on Abebooks today!

http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php...18500#post18500