Hi. I’m Paul Kenny. I live with my wife in Teddington, Middlesex.

I’m a biographer, working in a golden window of opportunity. I employ that great utility tool of the 21st century, the search engine, to find all manner of primary source material in universities, museums and archives. Then I use that material to bring great 20th century personalities back to life.

In fifty years, will there be any archives of emails?

My first book, The Man Who Supercharged Bond, was published in 2009. It told the story of automotive, aeronautic and astronautic engineer and society portrait painter, Amherst Villiers. The late Edward, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, who kindly wrote the foreword, called it ‘an authoritative, overdue account of an extraordinary man.’ Jay Leno introduced it on his book club as ‘one of the automobile books of the year, if not the automobile book of the year.’

My second book was published in October 2025. Whitney Straight was born an American, in New York City, the day after Woodrow Wilson was elected 28th president. He died an Englishman, in London, a month before Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. In between, he was Europe’s finest independent racing driver, he had a remarkable war – few airmen win a Military Cross, few Britons win a US Legion of Merit – and he was an executive of some of Britain’s greatest companies, including BOAC, Rolls-Royce and Midland Bank.

The History Press have published Whitney Straight: Racing Driver, War Hero, Industrialist in hardback and Kindle forms. Blackstone Audio have published the audio book, read by Simon Vance.