Nick Mason made his annual pilgrimage to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed this weekend. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the event is held in the Sussex country estate of Lord March, and attracts cars, drivers and enthusiasts from all over the world for the now legendary three day event. This made nine-out-of-ten for Nick, only having missed the 1994 event being on tour at the time.

This time, Nick brought along his Ferrari 512S from 1970, shown right, the same car that Steve McQueen used in the film Le Mans, and which was burnt out in a fire. Nick restored it and proudly drove it on the track throughout the weekend.

We took the opportunity to find out from Nick what the position is with his long-awaited book charting the history of the band.

He confirmed to us that it is nearly finished, but even so, he didn't think that it would be published until next year. A shame, but all good things are worth waiting for!

Earlier in the week, Nick told UK newspaper The Times why he enjoys the festival so much: "It's such a comfortable atmosphere throughout the weekend. This definitely isn't the Glastonbury of motor sport - it has this marvellous sort of garden fete feel to it." Mason's entire family is motor sport mad. His wife Annette and daughters Chloe and Holly hold international historic racing licences. In fact, Mason and Annette competed together in a two-driver event during last September's Goodwood Revival meeting.

"My wife's view is that motor sport is unspeakably dull unless you are actually doing it," explains Mason. "She doesn’t really want to spectate, just to drive. It's the same with my two daughters."

And even rock stars have heroes. For Mason one of the other great draws of the Festival of Speed is the chance to see some of the greatest racing drivers of the 20th century. "What's fantastic is that you get to meet all your heroes in one hit. You know, it's great to meet one or two over the years, but to suddenly find yourself in a room with 20 of them is extraordinary. What's excellent is that you also get a whole bunch of people you wouldn’t expect to see in the UK, particularly American drivers such as Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, and I think the father and son Unsers are coming this year."