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.
The book was published on 2 October 2025, and had its first reprint in December, just in time for Christmas.
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 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…
We have a cover! I chose the image, of Whitney powering his 26M Maserati through Shelsley Walsh’s Upper Ess on his way to taking a massive 1.6 seconds off the hill record, during the September 1933 meeting. Rather aptly, the event organisers, the Midland Automobile Club, provided the image from their archives.