Range Rover: Encounter with a true thoroughbred

By Nigel Wigmore

THE definition of a thoroughbred — according to at least one online dictionary — is “an outstanding or first class person or thing”.
I’m not sure any of us think of a car as a “thing”. This seems far too detached a term for the next most expensive object we buy after a house.
Few cars these days I would describe as thoroughbreds, but this week’s drive is the exception.
The Range Rover has well-documented antecedents that stretch back more than 70 years, when the humble Land Rover first appeared.
The Rover Company originally used the name Land Rover for a four-wheel drive off-road model launched in 1948. Continue reading

The Secret of Englishman’s Island by Nigel Wigmore

Special investigator Cameron McGrath is hired by the prosecutor investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election to find former US Attorney General Joseph Koons, who has gone missing after being fired by the new President.But before McGrath can get to Joe Koons a Russian sniper from a spy ship cruising the North Atlantic assassinates Koons on remote Langlade (Englishman’s Island), off Newfoundland.Joe Koons has left secret documents that implicate the Russians in collusion but with no paper or digital trail. McGrath follows cryptic clues left by Koons to locate the documents.From Chicago McGrath travels halfway around the world to fulfil Joe Koons’ dying wish that the contents of the secret documents are made known to the American people. McGrath is pursued by Arkady Johnson, the Russian sniper, who has orders to kill the special investigator. McGrath travels to Thor Peak on Baffin Island, Rehavia, in Israel, a monastery in the Cévennes in Southern France, and the British Library in London. The chase reaches its climax with a showdown in Washington DC at the National Museum of American History.

Mac & Master written and illustrated by Nigel Wigmore

Mac & Master drawings

Mac, the Scottie Dog and his Master live a happy life together. Where Master goes, Mac goes. Until one day Master has to meet a man at Paddington Station. The man forces Master onto a train. Mac is left alone on the platform. Who has kidnapped Master and why? Mac does not know what to do until he meets Tosh, a streetwise Boxer. Their adventure together begins when Mac and Tosh stow away aboard a train to follow Master. But will they be able to rescue him from the kidnappers? Will Mac ever see Master again?

Little Peter the Great written and illustrated by Nigel Wigmore

When Peter’s family moves back to London after ten years living abroad, all the 13-year-old wants to do is to settle down and make friends. However, Peter’s world is turned upside down when he explores a London mansion that was once a Russian embassy. He discovers an old Russian hiding out in the mansion. Illya Grigorevich is being retired and sent back to Moscow. But Illya refuses to go. During the 1960s, Harry Grebb, now German Ambassador to Britain, abducted and murdered Illya’s best friend, Dimitri Denisovich. Grebb accused Dimitri, who was known as DD, of being a double agent. But Grebb’s motive was that he and DD were love rivals for the same woman. Now Illya wants to expose Harry Grebb for the murder of his friend DD. But Grebb sets out to silence Illya. Peter’s parents want to send him away to boarding school. Peter refuses to go. Illya leaves England to get away from Grebb. Peter persuades Illya to take him with him. But Grebb gives chase. Peter and Illya run for their lives to Paris and then on to Geneva in Switzerland, with Grebb close behind. But Illya has a surprise up his sleeve for the unsuspecting Grebb.

Hippo by Nigel Wigmore: A Ray Hippolyte Novel

Find my novel on Amazon here:

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About the book:

“This person is catchable,” Hippo said. “He’s a good climber, I’ll give him that, and he’s given the French cops the run-around for a couple of years. They’ve never got anywhere near him. But one day we’re going to catch up with him, Jimmy, before the police do and get a damn good story on him or my name’s not Ray Hippolyte.”

Journalist Ray Hippolyte – known as Hippo – badly needs one last scoop. With photographer Jimmy Bowen, the two are hot on the trail of a notorious jewel thief who has consistently eluded police in Britain and on the Continent. The prime suspect is celebrity French restaurateur Frank So. Yet despite being named on social media no one seems able to touch Frank So. Then Hippo discovers an even bigger story that So is a spy for the Chinese who are seeking to eavesdrop on every facet of British life.

 

About the author:

Nigel Wigmore has worked as a journalist all his life. He was a features sub-editor on The Guardian in London for more than two decades and for another eleven years on the London Evening Standard. He lives in England and writes a weekly column on cars.

The Blower Bentley remembered, the one that still blows your mind

By Nigel Wigmore

One of my earliest memories of the Bentley magic was standing on a bend at Silverstone racetrack watching a “Blower” disappear over the hill.

The distinctive, double bass boom of the Blower’s engine magically reverberated across my stomach muscles as it passed.

An even earlier memory is of a beautiful, golden-green, two-door Bentley Continental Coupé, the 1960s model with the handsome raked back, passing by me occasionally as I walked to school. (The picture of a modern Bentley added to this post – along with Bentley’s photograph of the Blower Bentley – actually shows a more up to date model which to my mind is not quite as spectacular as the 1960s Continental of my boyhood. Nevertheless the sumptuous Bentley Continental GT Speed Black Edition shown is a very handsome car.)

The Blower Bentley got its name from the supercharger mounted up front on the radiator to show the car meant business. It certainly did. This Bentley proved so reliable on the track that it nearly won Le Mans in 1928 and 1929. Continue reading

Anytime soon we’re all gonna rock down to Electric Avenue

By Nigel Wigmore

The chances are that many more of us will be taking a ride down reggae star Eddy Grant’s fabled Electric Avenue in the next decade.

Within the next 10 years — and remember that brings us perilously close to 2040, when our own government has called for an end to all sales of petrol- and diesel-powered cars — electric cars will be everywhere.

But that is nothing to sing about, I hear you say. What about the issues of mileage, range, the “woeful” current infrastructure of electric charging points, and the alleged burden on the National Grid? Continue reading

70 years on, Land Rover remains Defender of the faithful

By Nigel Wigmore

There can be nothing more warming to the heart of any true Brit than to encounter in some far-off land a Land Rover churning its way along a dubious track.

It seems nowadays that in the wealthier parts of California or the Middle East you will spot plenty of luxurious black Range Rovers.

But the sturdy, long- and short-wheel-base Land Rovers that pop up regularly on our television screens crossing the Sahara or the Himalayan hinterland are to me a truer symbol of solid Britishness and the glorious past history of our car manufacture than any modern day trophy car. And those iconic workhorses tell us more about the Land Rover story. Continue reading

Superhero meets supercar and runs out of superlatives

SONY DSC

By Nigel Wigmore

It was the ultimate boy’s toy – a superfast, super-expensive supercar. The 2009 Lamborghini Spyder’s throaty roar could be heard streets away and its good looks turned heads everywhere.

Indeed, my favourite comment as I cruised around Oxfordshire in the 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 Spyder was from a boy of about 14 who, passing on his chopper bike cast wise, young eyes over the car and said: “Sick!”

Apparently, in kid-speak this is the ultimate compliment for this ultimate boy’s toy. In the same way that if something is said to be bad, it is actually good, the Lamborghini Spyder being real bad. Continue reading