Chapter Two is mostly about…

For five summers, a cliff-top idyll at Woods Hole, at the south-western corner of Cape Cod, MA, was where young Whitney spent his summers, grappling with the currents ripping through the Elizabeth Islands as he learned to sail in Buzzards Bay.

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Peter Janson-Smith: a centenary celebration

Peter Janson-Smith, the man Ian Fleming called the ‘prince of agents’, was born 100 years ago today. This appreciation is based on an interview I conducted with him in the run-up to his 90th birthday celebrations.

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Chapter One is mostly about…

His parents met in Washington, fell in love in Beijing and married in Geneva, and his father survived the Great War but died in Paris, just three weeks after the Armistice, from Spanish Flu. Yet most of Chapter One plays out in New York State…

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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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Interview at the Wilmington Trust lunch, Rolls-Royce Owners’ Club Annual Meet, Markham, Ontario: Thursday: 22 July 2010

In the summer of 2010, my family and I mixed business and pleasure on a four-week sojourn around  North America, punctuated with book events. This was the first one, at the Rolls-Royce Owners’ Club’s Annual Meet. It was set up by Sabu Advani. At the time he was Editor-in-Chief of the RROC’s house magazine, The Flying Lady, and I recommend any petrol head to check in regularly with his speedreaders.info site, with its plethora of reviews on transport books and media.

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