Further good news – it’s definitely the book that goes on giving. I’m delighted that my Whitney Straight biography has been shortlisted for the Motoring Book of the Year award at the International Historic Motoring Awards.
Jottings
A green plaque for Amherst Villiers
There are no fewer than three blue plaques adorning the Mayfair former home of Amherst Villiers, the subject of my first book, ‘The Man Who Supercharged Bond’. But now, thanks to the house’s latest owner and Westminster City Council, there’s a green plaque too!
Shortlisted!
Well this is most gratifying. Next month I shall be returning to the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall, where I carried out so much of the research, and where the book was launched.
The Club’s Motoring Book of the Year awards are being held there on 28 October, and my Whitney Straight book has been shortlisted in the ‘motorsport title under £30’ category.
The strange case of the double dedication
A kind neighbour came round the other night to get both my books signed for her father. As soon as I picked up the Villiers book and felt the remnants of a label on the back, I knew that this copy had passed through the hands of the US distributor, with a $42.95 label on its back.
Errata in respect of first print run
The book was published on 2 October 2025, and had its first reprint in December, just in time for Christmas.
OTD 1912
Outside on the streets of New York, horseless carriages were vying for supremacy over horse-drawn buggies. Inside the five-storey townhouse on East 67th Street, near the corner with Madison Avenue, Dr Cragin’s attempts to induce the baby had failed. It was clear now that the expectant parents would not get their wish – their first child would not be born on election day.
Publication Day, 2 October 2025
The hardback and Kindle versions of the book were published this morning. The occasion was marked with fizz and fillet steak chez nous, while The History Press published this thought-provoking Q&A we’d worked on recently. Read on…
OTD 1926
On 26 September 1926, Dartington Hall School opened its doors. Its initial intake of nine children comprised Whitney, his sister Beatrice and brother Michael, the son of the man planting Dartington’s apple orchard and five children collected that morning from Totnes railway station.
On 26 August 1934, while Whitney was racing to third place in the Comminges Grand Prix, teammate Hugh ‘Hammy’ Hamilton was in Bern, participating in the inaugural Swiss Grand Prix, held at a 4.5-mile circuit in the forest of Bremgarten, to the north of the city.OTD 1935, part 1
On 17 July 1935, Whitney married Lady Daphne Finch Hatton at St Margaret’s,Westminster.
Daphne wore a striking dress of heavy silver lamé with long train, and a head dress fashioned in the shape of a crusader’s camail from silver net sewn with orange blossom. Much like his biographer 54 years later, Whitney was clad in black frock coat, grey trousers, pale waistcoat, wing collars and cravat.