Forthcoming events

Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, 19 February 2026
The birthplace of British motorsport and aviation is the ideal location to talk about Whitney. The epitome of a wings and wheels man, he won races and broke lap records at Brooklands as a matter of routine.

The talk will be held in the Napier Room, and will also be streamed. Tickets to attend the talk in person, for Brooklands Museum members and non-members alike, and also for those who wish to livestream the evening, may be purchased here.

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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.

 

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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

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Whitney Straight book launch at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, 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.

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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.

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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.

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Book talk at the American Bugatti Club’s International Rally, Hotel Chaminade, Santa Cruz, California: Monday, 16 August 2010

Our last night at the end of four weeks of North American book business and pleasure coincided with the the first stopover for the 73 Bugatti drivers participating in the American Bugatti Club‘s International Rally, in everything from 1920s Brescias to noughties Veyrons.

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Book Club interview on Jay Leno’s Garage, Burbank, California: Saturday, 7 August 2010

Online, Jay Leno’s Garage is a weekly video hosted by the man himself in celebration of ‘anything that rolls, explodes and makes noise’. On the ground, it’s several industrial units full of a great many cars.

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Book signing at Autobooks-Aerobooks, West Magnolia Boulevard, Burbank, California: Saturday, 7 August 2010

Autobooks-Aerobooks, run by the irrepressible Tina Van Curen, is America’s oldest and largest automotive and aeronautic book shop – where else should I head for to encounter Californians wanting to know more about Amherst Villiers?

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