Me and My Holden: A nostalgia trip with the early Holdens was launched in Sydney on 3 August at the NSW All Holden Day event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the arrival of Australia’s first family car!

The name Holden has an attraction for Australians that no other make of car can claim. Beginning with the release of the original model in the late 1940s, Australia’s love affair with this car continues to the present day.

For most Australian families, buying an early Holden was a symbol of their increasing prosperity and for many an ‘FX’ or an FJ was their first good car, or even the first car they ever owned. In the late 1950s and 1960s, a whole new wave of Australians fell in love as second-hand Holdens became the first cars acquired by the younger generation. Now, thousands of Australians have fond, nostalgic memories of their first Holdens.

In Me and My Holden: A nostalgia trip with the early Holdens Don Loffler continues his crusade to record for posterity the many photographs and memorabilia he has received over time. His book is a stunning time capsule of photographs of cars taken in their day as though they were family members. The book preserves Australia’s and Holden’s history for future generations. Almost all the images in Me and My Holden are published in this beautiful hardcover book for the first time. They include photographs of people at leisure, at work, or on holiday with their Holdens, as well as photographs and advertisements from GM Holden Ltd’s archival collection that would normally never see the light of day. Detailed captions reveal the history behind the images.

Don Loffler is acknowledged as a leading historian of early model Holdens and the author of three other successful books on the Holden car, published by Wakefield Press: She’s a Beauty!, Still Holden Together, and The FJ Holden. After years of being teased for never having owned a Holden, Don can at last hold his head high as the owner of his own 1953 48-215 sedan (‘Glenda’). A retired teacher of Latin, chemistry and German, Don now devotes most of his time to his passion for Holdens. He lives in Adelaide.

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