We're expecting copies of this book to arrive in late September or early October. Our pre-order page will have exact dates when we know them.
On 1 November 1926, General Motors was incorporated as an Australian company at City Road, South Melbourne. Shortly afterwards, about 120 head-office staff gathered out the front for a photograph. In the front row was a young man named Harry Crennan, who would serve the company for 42 years. A century later, his son John has written the book that celebrates what they all built.
Previous GM and Holden anniversary books put the cars at the centre: the design, the engineering, the manufacturing. This one takes another path. It tells the business and people stories of the company Australians affectionately called The General, across its three identities: General Motors Australia, General Motors-Holden and now GMSV.
Few people could have written it. John Crennan started as a 17-year-old fill-in mail boy at Fishermans Bend in December 1962 and spent 50 years under the lion flag, including 22 years leading Holden Special Vehicles and the Holden Racing Team. Two years in the making, the book draws on the extraordinary archive of General Motors, with permission to utilise GM imagery and marks. It gathers more than 2,000 stories, illustrated with more than 300 photographs across 260 pages, with a foreword by respected motoring publisher and commentator John Mellor.
This is a book for former employees and their families, dealer families, motor sport followers, and every Australian with a Holden somewhere in their story. It is an exclusive limited edition of 1,000 copies, printed in Melbourne, with deliveries from late September 2026, ahead of the centenary on 1 November. Pre-order now to reserve yours.