Sixteen years and a whole head of curly hair after I last did a signing there, and maybe fourteen after I began my Whitney Straight project, I returned to Autobooks-Aerobooks, the bookshop with the most ideal customer base on the planet, a chequered flag for a floor and another one draped over the signing table. No better place in which to bid farewell to Whitney.
The History Press
Signing with Ben Horton, Race Retro, Stoneleigh Park, 21 February 2026
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.
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.
Talk at West London Aero Club, White Waltham Airfield, Maidenhead, 10 December 2025
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.
Talk at Dartington Hall, Dorset, 21 October 2025
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
Whitney Straight book launch at the Royal Automobile Club, London, 7 October 2025
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.
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…
The cover!
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.