Philip Porter

Philip is, first and foremost, a very long-term motoring and motorsport enthusiast. He started competing in the late 1960s while still at school. He purchased his Jaguar XKs and two early E-types — 9600 HP, the oldest in existence and original launch car, and the Italian Job red roadster — in the 1970s for relative peanuts, but all in need of restoration.

He began writing for Old Motor and Classic & Sports Car in the 1980s and his first book was published mid-decade. He has now written about 35. Having created books for Penguin, Haynes, Quarto and others, he commenced publishing in 2005, beginning with the four Stirling Moss Scrapbooks. Later he published similar books with Murray Walker, Martin Brundle and Barry Cryer. He has continued to write books when time allows, including a two-volume set with Gordon Murray, Volume 1 of a definitive biography of Moss and, for charity, Drivers on Drivers.

Beyond the car world, he was twice Chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society, was a champion hot air balloon pilot, silver medallist in the European Hot Air Airship Championships in Luxembourg, is the first person ever to fly an airship in Africa, is an active member of the Jerome K Jerome Society and came up with the idea of the Round Britain Coastal Drive, supporting Prostate Cancer UK, for whom he was their Motoring Ambassador.

His wife Julie is a fellow director and very much involved in the business, playing key roles.