In 2007, Radiohead had a problem. Like many bands, they were facing the global issue of music piracy. The traditional model of music creation, distribution and monetisation was broken. So they decided to fix it by giving away their new album, In Rainbows, for free. That was more than ten years ago now. And Radiohead […]
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On Track Instructing – The Biggest Save Of My Life
In track instructing on public days, there are several mantras that any track instructor has to learn very quickly to survive, remain safe and still deliver a worthwhile driving experience to the clients. I won’t go into all of them here, instead I will pick just two elements. The Shit Drivers and The ‘Good’ Drivers […]
Got a new Tablet as a gift? Here’s Six Ebooks You Should be Reading
Digital Tablets are wonderful devices for consuming content with. And together with YouTube and Vimeo, Ebooks have become one of the favourite uses of my iPad. I still recall the day I saw the iPad for the first time and like the iPhone before it, I knew it was going to change things forever. Both […]
A Real World Guide to Driving the Streets of Paris
If you love motorsport, track driving or those lovely European autoroutes and alpine passes, then you may well think that the centre of Paris is somewhere to avoid like the plague. In fact, driving in Paris is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lives, even if it’s only from the passenger […]
The Police TPAC Driving Skill – Tactical Pursuit And Containment
Traffic Police. Just blokes driving about in the latest kit trying to nab you? Or a branch of the police tasked with looking at and dealing with the carnage of other people’s stupidity while trying to catch the nasty little Chavs we all hate hanging around car parks? More than four years ago, I spend […]
UPDATED – The Porsche 996 Turbo – Why They’re Good Value and Why They’ll Never Be Truly Collectable
In Porsche collecting circles, right now even a few months seems like an eternity. I originally wrote this article in 2011. In March 2016, I updated it to reflect the changes in attitudes towards the Porsche 996 Turbo. Buyers had realised that the engine was indeed pretty bulletproof and the cars were rising. I wrote […]
Ten Essential Tools I Can’t Live Without In Content Creation and One Reason Why They Won’t Help
What are the most essential tools I use, every day, when producing and creative content? It’s a question I am often asked, so here’s my overview on what works for me and how you can save a lot of money if you’re starting out blogging, shooting photographs or simply creating content for work or for […]
Why People Need Help To Buy Into Environmental Change Instead of Being Taxed Into It
The latest Paris riots as I write this in late 2018 are a terrible affront on normal society. I generally have a high regard for the French attitude to authority. And I am amazed that President Macron hasn’t seen this coming. The world is changing and with it, society’s willingness to have punitive and disconnected […]
Supply and Demand – the Needless Suffering of the Supercar Driving Experience Industry
The Supercar Driving Experience industry is in pain and quite possibly dying in the UK. It’s an industry I worked in as an instructor for more that a decade and so it saddens me deeply to be writing this post. I have a great affection for the industry, the great people within it and the […]
Want to Write? Find Writers To Help Your Style
Whether you aspire to be a better writer, or you simply enjoy reading a well written book, blog post or magazine feature, you will know that all writers have a style that develops over time. It’s ever evolving and it’s the thing that dictates whether you like a writer or not. So what makes a […]
A Few Hours in Bruges
Many people travelling from the UK to Europe and back arrive via the Hull – Zeebrugge ferry connection. Of course, the first thing you wish to do after an overnight ferry is to hit the road and get some miles behind you as you head south to the sunshine. However, if you’re able to pause […]
The Morning After the Storm
I have this weird clock inside my head that wakes me up. It’s annoying sometimes, especially on those days when, the evening before, you say to yourself, “I’m going to have a lazy lie in tomorrow morning.” It almost never happens. I’ve given up on the idea these days and just roll with it. A […]
Omaha Beach – Les Braves
This must have been an utterly terrifying place on earth to be on the dawn of 6th June 1944. Omaha Beach and that whole area of the French coastline is covered with the scars of warfare. as I stood on the same beach in 2018, utterly open and without the tiniest scrap of cover, it […]
Memories of Los Angeles
As I’m sitting watching the international news right now, with California burning in the heat and wind of the dry climate, I was reminded of my visit there in 2015. I travelled there to meet up with Ron Chapple of Aerial Film Works. Ron’s one of the stellar aerial filming specialists in the world and […]
Aged 18 Years – Remembrance
Today, it seems appropriate to share this picture. It was the image that hit me the hardest from my work at Thiepval two years ago when I covered the Centenary of the start of The Battle of The Somme. Just 48 hours earlier, I had wished one of my sons a happy 18th Birthday before […]
Remembrance and Thiepval
This Remembrance weekend marks the Centenary of Armistice. The day when the guns finally fell silent in what became known as The Great War. In this modern age, with all the tools we have for communicating directly with one another, you would like to think that the possibility of such a conflict ever recurring is […]
The Day I Realised the iPhone Was Changing Everything
Saltburn beach, North Yorkshire, UK. Taking my big hairy Golden Retriever for a walk along the beach late on a summers evening. That’s when it came to me that the iPhone would change my world and that I needed to plan. I’d left the mighty Canon 1DS behind, as it was just a nice evening […]
Art Deco Diving
Anyone who knows me will tell you I have an affection for Art Deco style. My ideal home is probably a 1930s pristine white control tower with an Extra 300 parked before it. Shortly after enjoying lunch and spotting the faded yellow Mercedes, I came across this diving board at the local outdoor pool. It […]
Behind The Scenes . -Twin Porsche Turbo Magazine Feature Production
This recent cover story for Total 911 started out as a straight forward report on the latest Porsche 991 Turbo S Exclusive Edition. The initial plan was to drive the car and report on it, probably somewhere in the North Wales area. Then we found out that a classic 930 Turbo 3.0 in the period […]
The Frozen Race Track
For most people in the UK, the idea of driving on ice fills them with dread. The prospect of driving on a frozen lake simply scales up that paranoia with the added terror of drowning through a hole in the ice, to a cold watery grave. What’s not to like? In fact, driving on a […]
Returning To Base
No matter what the casual aviation commentator may say about helicopters, for me, they are addictive. The unrivalled view in most directions, plus the ability to stop and then land, rather than land and then stop as in fixed wing, always seems to make sense to me. This was shot over the shoulder of pilot […]