A LIFE AWHEEL

Richard Skelton has been a motorcyclist since first taking to the road on a Yamaha FS1-E on his 16th birthday in 1976, and his first book, Funky Mopeds, was about the 1970s sports moped phenomenon in which he played an active part.

After 30 years working in the television industry as a sound editor, and time spent working as a newspaper reporter, as well as a writer for BikeSport News and other racing publications, he now combines writing books about motorcycles and classic cars with running a small B&B in the Yorkshire Pennines.

Wilberforce de Forte was born shortly after the end of the First World War, in the village of Bales, Shropshire, where he still lives. He is the son of Gordon Bennett Cup car racer Basil de Forte, and the grandson of Sir Cecil de Forte, a gentleman farmer who owned the first car in the county.

As a young man, de Forte established himself as a successful independent motoring writer, working for a number of specialist automotive periodicals. During the Second World War, de Forte served with distinction throughout Europe in the Army Transport Corps, and he continued to write whenever his duties allowed.

Subsequently, de Forte travelled the world as a motoring journalist, and his outpourings continued unabated until a high speed prang while testing a wayward Rudge Ulster, in the autumn of 2014, brought him up with a jolt.

Once back home in Bales, he removed himself to his study on a semi-permanent basis, wherein he started work on an autobiographical memoir, a work much requested over very many years, and now eagerly anticipated by friends and motoring historians alike.