Sixteen years and a whole head of curly hair after I last did a signing there, and maybe fourteen after I began my Whitney Straight project, I returned to Autobooks-Aerobooks, the bookshop with the most ideal customer base on the planet, a chequered flag for a floor and another one draped over the signing table. No better place in which to bid farewell to Whitney.
Events
Talk at the International Motor Racing Research Center, Watkins Glen, NY, 5 May 2026
The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC) is based in Watkins Glen, New York, just ten minutes’ drive from the circuit which hosted the US Grand Prix between 1961 and 1980.
I ticked two items off my bucket list during my visit. Not only did I give a talk there, but I sat in one of their fabulous director’s chairs!
Talk at the Century Association, New York, 30 April 2026
The Century Association, on New York’s West 43rd Street, is a private club founded in 1847. Whitney’s father Willard was once a member, and the family kindly arranged for it to be the base for a celebration of the book’s US launch.
Signing with Ben Horton, Race Retro, Stoneleigh Park, 21 February 2026
Back on Ben Horton’s stand as an author rather than as a punter for the first time in years, signing a few copies of the Whitney book, and chatting about it for his excellent YouTube channel.
Talk at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, 19 February 2026
As the home of British motorsport and aviation, there was no better place than Brooklands Museum to celebrate the life of Whitney Straight, and so many people contributed to a very special day.
Talk at West London Aero Club, White Waltham Airfield, Maidenhead, 10 December 2025
White Waltham is one of the UK’s oldest and best known airfields, and is home to the West London Aero Club. The aerodrome is forever associated with the Air Transport Auxiliary, with whom Whitney’s close friend, Diana Barnato Walker, served with distinction. My talk focused on Whitney’s childhood fascination with aircraft; qualifying as a pilot at just 17; his pre-war civil aviation business (the aerodromes, the airlines and the Miles Whitney Straight); his rise through the ranks from Pilot Officer to Air Commodore with 601 and 242 Squadrons, and 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group; and his his post-war career with BEA, BOAC and Rolls-Royce.
Talk at Dartington Hall, Dorset, 21 October 2025
Thanks to Adam on sound and a mighty projector, the Dartington Trust‘s Arts Curator Peter Nicholson and I were able to create a convivial atmosphere in the Great Hall as we chatted about Whitney, and how his unique position as Dartington’s eldest founding pupil helped form him
Whitney Straight book launch at the Royal Automobile Club, London, 7 October 2025
The Royal Automobile Club’s Pall Mall clubhouse library was the perfect location for the book launch. I spent many weeks there, maybe even months, poring over books and 1930s magazines, and that lovely long room, lined with oak book shelves and with open fires at each end, is quite literally my favourite room in London.
Wild Words Festival, Colesdale Farm, Hertfordshire, 3 June 2022
The inaugural Wild Words Festival took place over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, the brainchild of the irrepressible science writer, NonFicPod co-host and Society of Authors stalwart, Emma Byrne.
Book signing at Bond in Motion, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, 15 January 2012
My friends in the Ian Fleming Foundation invited me to join them for the press launch of the first iteration of Bond in Motion, back at dear old Beaulieu in January 2012. The exhibition subsequently went on to enjoy great acclaim at the London Transport Museum, and is currently drawing crowds to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.