Cars in books, August 1997

Both the author, Nic Portway, and recalled that a 30/98 had figured in Aldous Huxley’s novel Barren Leaves, when he was writing and I was Forewording Nic’s epic Vauxhall book. It is probably less well-known that a 1920s Vauxhall is to be found in another work, namely, Anthony Powell’s A Question of Upbringing in his A Dance To The Music Of Time series. “The car was adapted for speed, having had its windscreen removed”. In it some youths and two girls are trying it for speed when it is involved in a minor accident, going off the road, into a ditch, after it had got up to “… about 75 or 80”. Surely a 30/98?

A few other cars, from Rolls-Royce to Ford, and a 1920s Buick, are mentioned in this novel, which is to become the subject of a ‘TV film. There is also an amusing piece about an ancient Morris which refused to start after a house party, having to be pushed by the guests, and eventually reversed into a stone urn. This is yet another book to mention Brooklands, a wealthy playboy competing there. Did the well-known author, Anthony Powell, have a 30/98 and know Brooklands, I wonder?