Profile for a book published prior to his passing:
LJK Setright cuts a tall imposing figure; part elderly professor, part biblical prophet mixed with a kindly voice that I instantly imagine reading children's stories over the radio circa 1950. He likes tyres, hats, champagne and Bristol cars. He dislikes dogs, speed limits, public transport and 'environmental faddists'. He is one of the world's foremost and most distinguished motoring journalists.
When Carl's Cars arrives at his sunny Surbiton apartment, Setright offers us white wine and gold tipped Sobranie Black Russian cigarettes ('it's never too late to try') and we sit down to chat. Now in his early seventies and sporting a magnificently long white beard, Setright spent thirty-three years writing for the influential and groundbreaking Car magazine. He has seen the industry change from what he terms 'gentlemanly to laddish'‑a particular annoyance being the now obligatory spraying of champagne at the end of motor races, 'a vulgarian display of disrespect for this princely drink.' Bemoaning the fact that today 'the average reader of a car magazine or book doesn't actually want to be made to think', he remembers an earlier era of motoring journalism when not many people could own cars but everyone could dream about them. The writing was investigative and educational whereas now 'it is often little more than a vehicle for advertisers to sell things.' He hopes that his latest book, Drive On: A Social History of the Motor Car (Granta Books), will do something to combat that attitude and 'provide intellectual refreshment' along the way. It should do. Setright is a man as happy discussing Corinthian inscriptions and Viennese string quartets, as he is talking steering wheels and exhausts. The only thing he doesn't explain is just how one person can possibly know so very very much.
Champagne connoisseur, expert on schechitah (ritual kosher slaughter), accomplished jazz clarinetist... When an editor recently suggested toning down his prose to suit the tastes of the current generation of readers, he submitted his next column written entirely in Latin.
Some obits from 2005:
LJK Setright
LJK Setright
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