Weird cars A Century of the World's Strangest Cars by Stephen Vokins (Haynes, £14.99)

STEPHEN Vokins presents a celebration of eccentric cars in all shapes and sizes. Here are some of the most ugly, crazily designed and downright awkward vehicles of all time. Where else would you find, in one book, descriptions and photographs of 250 automotive oddities as diverse as the 1920 propeller-driven Leyat Aerocar and the Purves Dynasphere - a huge wheel in which the driver sat suspended, trying to maintain momentum and stability? And the Gatso with its three headlights, perspex roof and blob-shaped body. Today when cars are designed and built so efficiently, all of these oddballs provide a welcome glimpse of the opposite end of the motoring spectrum, where weirdness and charm are mixed in equal measure.

Stephen Vokins has worked at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, since 1982. His spare time is devoted to writing, broadcasting and enthusing about cars, and he has presented a number of programmes on the Men and Motors TV channel.