Humor

Born in Shropshire soon after the end of the First World War, venerable motoring writer W de Forte has driven everything from his grandfather's first Daimler, to modern-day supercars … ridden everything from vertiginous Victorian penny farthings, to high velocity twenty-first century superbikes … travelled everywhere from the permafrost of the Arctic Circle to the baking sands of the Baja Peninsula … and met everyone from Tazio Nuvolari to Valentino Rossi.
W de Forte enjoyed an eventful career as a top-level journalist, spanning 75 years, during which time he tested many thousands of cars and reported on countless automotive events around the world. This made him uniquely qualified to comment on all aspects of classic and vintage motoring and motorcycling.
Relatively undimmed by age and ague, even in his 90s, de Forte had no plans to retire, but, in early 2011, a high-speed prang while testing a wayward Rudge Ulster at a racing circuit in Belgium brought him up with a jolt, both literally and metaphorically. After recuperating in hospital, he settled down to write his long-awaited and much requested autobiography.
This unique and insightful book is the result. Packed with fascinating stories about classic cars and motorcycles, A Life Awheel – the ‘Auto’ Biography of W de Forte is an account of an extraordinary motoring life, and the story of motoring in the 20th century.

If you are English, please read this book with a light heart and do what the English do best – have a laugh at yourself. If you are a visitor, or are planning to visit England's sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, and sometimes windy shores, this book will help you to begin to appreciate, if not fully understand, this unique country and its people.
Each page of the book features a section entitled ‘Metaphorically Speaking' – a testimony to the English love of metaphors, which can often cause confusion if English is not your native language. These sections explore some of the many unusual metaphors a visitor might hear, and offer helpful advice on when to use them.
Featuring humorous illustrations throughout, this is a hilarious and informative read for all nationalities.

Automakers are as prone to turn out clunkers as politicians are to lie. Their cars may be ugly, misconceived, badly built, diabolical to drive, ridiculously thirsty, or just plain unreliable. So which were the worst offenders of the past 20 years?
In this light-hearted, somewhat irreverent look at the world of cars, journalists Honest John and George Fowler share their combined wealth of automotive experience to reveal what they consider to be the 80 worst car-tastrophes of the past two decades.
Honest John wrote the motoring agony column at The Daily Telegraph for 20 years, and now runs his own website reviewing cars and answering questions, while George Fowler, also known as Motormouth, is Motoring Editor at The Daily Star. No-one is as qualified to dish out the dirt as these two.
If your car is, or was, remotely good then you won't find it in this book. On the other hand, if it's here, don't expect any sympathy ...