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.
Whitney Straight
Talk at the Century Association, New York, 30 April 2026
The Century Association, on New York’s West 43rd Street, is a private club founded in 1847. Whitney’s father Willard was once a member, and the family kindly arranged for it to be the base for a celebration of the book’s US launch.
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.
Talk at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, 19 February 2026
As the home of British motorsport and aviation, there was no better place than Brooklands Museum to celebrate the life of Whitney Straight, and so many people contributed to a very special day.
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.
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…
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.