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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Michael Holroyd - On Wheels

Book of the Week: Michael Holroyd - On Wheels: Episode 3

Factual: Cars & Motors

On Wheels

Episode 3

Michael Holroyd - On Wheels

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Michael Holroyd - On Wheels, Episode 3

Michael Holroyd's first car may have been easy to drive, but this was during the Troubles.

Michael Holroyd's first car may have been easy to drive, but this was Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Read by the author. From November 2012.

Michael Holroyd confronts an army of automobiles in this charming memoir. Weaving together personal stories and historical anecdote, he traces his relationship with cars through a lifetime of biography. 

Learning to drive was no easy matter for Michael. The lessons required military precision when practising how to get in and out of his car correctly. His biographical subjects also had their difficulties: Bernard Shaw drove with reckless gusto when overtaking his eightieth year; Vita Sackville-West's car became a chamber for sudden romantic assignations and getaways; Augustus John and his family careered through vulnerable villages as the poor vehicle, piled high with bohemian friends, stuttered and jerked along in first gear. 

Wry, thoughtful and very funny, On Wheels is an elegy to the glamour of the car. Subtle and perceptive, Michael Holroyd finds surprising ways to understand the past and challenge our view of the future.

Episode 3 of 5
In the third episode of On Wheels Michael Holroyd describes the pleasures of driving a Daf, and the danger of doing so in Northern Ireland. And he gives us a taste of playwright Bernard Shaw's rather individualistic approach to driving.


Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

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Michael Holroyd traces his and his biographical subjects' relationships with cars.

Michael Holroyd traces his and his biographical subjects' relationships with cars

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