Michael Schumacher - the most successful Grand Prix driver of all time - remained a quiet-spoken, private family man throughout his controversial career. The global celebrity was a global stranger.

This is his full story, from humble beginnings to fashioning Ferrari in his own image, from a home-made kart to his very last race in China in October 2006 and the thrilling battle for his eighth World Championship. Best-selling Formula 1 biographer Christopher Hilton draws on an immense number of sources to celebrate this unique, fascinating and turbulent career as well as revealing who the stranger really is.