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 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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Book talk at the First International Blower Bentley Rally, Hotel Goldener Knopf, Bad Säckingen, Baden-Württembe, Saturday: 3 July 2010.

My first overseas talk in support of The Man Who Supercharged Bond came about because of the one of the images on the front cover: the iconic 1962 image which Loomis Dean shot for Life magazine of Ian Fleming sitting in a Blower Bentley, the car supercharged by Amherst Villiers and famously driven by James Bond in the first three 007 novels.

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Book talk at the Bugatti Trust, Prescott Hill, Gloucestershire: Wednesday, 10 March 2010

The Bugatti Trust possesses a wealth of primary source material relating to Bugatti, and in David Morys it has a first-rate archivist. Its on-line photo archive is an absolute treat – excellent search capabilities, and packed full of photos that deserve to be published much more often that they are.

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Book talk to the Friends of Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hampshire: Saturday, 23 January 2010

It was entirely appropriate that the first talk in support of The Man Who Supercharged Bond was at Beaulieu. Patrick Collins still runs the Research Library there, and Jon Day the Motoring Picture Library, and they’ve both been an enormous help to me down the years.

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Book signings at the Goodwood Revival: Friday 18 September 2009

The Revival is one of those special, end-of-summer events. I like it even more when the Weekend FT Festival sits back-to-back with it in my calendar. That means I head into the autumn full of octane and opinion.

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Book signing at Motor Books, Cecil Court, London: Saturday, 22 August 2009

Motor Books (1957-2013) was a fabulous, double-fronted book shop covering all aspects of transport, located in that little part of the West End rammed full of fabulous book shops. I was delighted that my first signing was there, and touched that there were posters in the windows advertising that I was coming.

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My direction of travel

Whitney Straight road sign

On the door of my study is an old American road sign, directing drivers to a small town down the road named Whitney. Insert a comma, and ‘WHITNEY STRAIGHT, AHEAD’ is my direction of travel.

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