Long Lane With Turnings: last words of a motoring legend
L J K Setright Granta, 151pp, £12.99
ISBN 1862078726
The late journalist J K Setright was described by one commentator as "the Wittgenstein of the motoring press". This is slightly too compact an aphorism for such a wide-ranging talent, but it gives an insight into Setright's remarkable prose style. Eschewing laddish jocularity, Setright describes his love for speed, motoring and a bygone way of English life with wit, style and verbal precision.
While there are perhaps fewer references to Virgil and Kipling in this unfinished autobiography than can be found in Setright's journalism, this is compensated for by the endlessly quotable bons mots that festoon the text. Setright, who died in 2005, wittily rails against the present-day emphasis on safety - "A murrain upon all this 0-60mph nonsense! What really matters is acceleration from 60 to 100 or more" - but there is a curiously melancholy tinge to the jokes and allusions. Throwaway comments linger in the memory: "Even on a motorcycle, the world can be a sad place."
Motoring journalist James May said of Long Lane With Turnings: "It has been widely lamented that Setright never finished this work . . . but I find it strangely apposite . . . what he did is so far, so good." As a summation of a remarkable man's career, this is hard to disagree with.
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