Talk at the Century Association, New York, 30 April 2026
The Century Association, on New York’s West 43rd Street, was founded as a private club in 1847, and was called ‘the most unspeakably respectable club in the United States’ by Mark Twain. Whitney’s father Willard was a member, and I am honoured that the celebration of the book’s US launch will take place there. This will necessarily be a private, invitation-only event.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s interesting to recall this one, and who’s doing what now. In between climbs up the hill to take in the action at the Corkscrew – surely, one of the most amazing corners on a race track anywhere – I spent time in Vendor Alley, signing books at the Wine County Motorsports and Green Mountain Motorbooks stands.