The Friendly Times

  Me posing with my AC Acedes Mk10 in 1964 Noddy I've had a mobility impairment for most of my life, so getting from A to B has always been challenging. As a result, wheelchairs or anything with four wheels and an engine has always appealed to me. I took charge of my first "car" when I was sixteen. Oddly it only had three wheels and was aptly named an "invalid" tricycle with the emphasis on the word "invalid". We came to call them "Noddys", not sure why but presumably linked in some way to Enid Blyton 's books about Noddy, who drove a little yellow car. Noddys were supplied by the then Ministry of Pensions to allow severely disabled people to get to work. For the technically minded The first of many invalid "carriages" or "tricycles" I drove was the aptly named Tippen Delta. And it arrived in 1961. (I found out pretty quickly what "Tippen" meant).  Driving Controls It was light blue and a convertible. I could...

My Mum on her wedding day c 1943 Ford Anglia 1952 Cars and driving have always fascinated me, and I believe this lifelong preoccupation began when I was about six years old. I caught polio as a three-year-old, and after a three-year stint in a hospital, I returned home to London to find a pretty little black 1952   Ford Anglia  parked outside our flat. Hardly anyone owned cars back then, but my Dad, an ex-serviceman, had contracted multiple sclerosis while on active service during the war. He was provided with the vehicle by the War Ministry as part of his benefit entitlement. My Mum had to drive because my Dad's disability meant he couldn't.  Although I don't recall many journeys, I know the little car was put to good use. I do remember one trip to the famously steep Box Hill in Surrey. We had managed to get about halfway up when steam began to billow out from under the bonnet. We pulled off the road, and Mum got out and lifted the bonnet. After a quick look, she told us...