Stars and their cars

I've just added this fine book to my Authors' Community page (click here). It may seem a bit off piste, but I was sent a free copy because I interviewed Jon Lord for Autocar's Me & My Car page, and contributed some comments for the next book.

Me and My Car interviews were often fun. Driving around Blackheath with Jools Holland in his Corvette was one of the best, and drinking champagne with Jon Lord was definitely time well spent.

The problem with this feature, however, was that it's quite hard to find someone who's not only well known, but also available for an interview and – the really tricky part – has something to say about cars.

Again, the two above were the perfect interviewees. Perhaps the worst was Bonnie Langford. She was a lovely girl, and did her best, but her car was a Vauxhall Nova, and we might as well have been talking about her dishwasher. It was useful and did what she needed it to do, but that was it.

I've also been involved in a few projects where celebrities have been given cars to try. If they live in London, the agent will casually say. Of course, it's residents' parking only here... Or, once delivered, the celeb may simply hate the car. Even worse, they nothing to say about it as per Miss Langford. The fury of the editor is hard to escape.