Moss' scrapbooks are remarkable. Unlike many drivers, he diligently saved ephemera or, rather, paid for a cuttings service.

Elements have been sampled in biographies but Jaguar authority Porter has had the inspired idea of making a feature of them. This bold, 160-page landscape book is the first of a series presenting each year of Moss' career and the result is hugely enjoyable. Each spread combines press cuttings, cartoons, magazine covers and photos - complemented by anecdotes from Moss and his friends, recorded by Porter.

From Borranis fitted on Stirling's hot Standard 8 to the false alarm when his girlfriend Sally Tollett went missing in Italy, it's the variety that makes this so absorbing. Be it heat exhaustion in the Argentine GP or relaxing on a Healey speedboat with Louise King and a mystery girl in Nassau, the pages present a vivid study of a superstar in the '50s. Judy Noot, who worked for Moss, '54-'58, and made up the scrapbooks, said: “We had a super working relationship. He's so bloody normal.' Second only to delving into the albums with Moss himself, this is a fascinating insight. We can't wait for the next.

Sometimes, ephemera can tell you as much about a subject as the most meticulously researched biography – and it’s a lot more fun to look at. That’s why this latest addition to the Moss canon is so welcome: it’s basically a collation of press cuttings, snapshots and personal mementoes from Moss’s own albums, celebrating one of the most important years in his life. In 1955 Moss finished second to Fangio in the F1 World Championship and won the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio, a remarkable tally by any standards.

Naturally, such major events are well documented here, but it’s the peripheral stuff that catches the eye – photos of the young Moss, looking impossibly fit and handsome, waterskiing on the Italian Riviera in the perfect encapsulation of La Dolce Vita, or pull-out quotes about Moss’s many girlfriends, such as the ultra-brief and cryptic ‘Brookie was an American press girl’. The numerous clippings from newspapers of the day give you a tabloid sense of immediacy that a conventional biography never could.

Dipping into this world of glamour makes you feel like a 1950s star-struck schoolboy, whether or not you ever were one.