Reading Now: A is for Allegro

Earlier this year, Roy McCarthy kindly agreed to give The Car Cult its design identity. So in return, I agreed to read the first two pages of his book. And as it turns out, it’s impossible to not finish the entire book in one go. Because it is so good that before you can put it back on the shelf, you’d want to take a peek at the next set of illustrations. And when you do that, the adjoining little story is likely to captivate you. And this continues till the very end.

Most of us are working from home at the moment, and this is a great reason to pick the book up during a short break. But that shouldn’t hold you back from buying it when this ‘lockdown’ situation ends. Just to ‘future-proof’ this story…

(If you’re from the future, have things improved yet?)

A is for Allegro is a list of eccentric cars chosen by Roy McCarthy. His beautifully crafted stories about how these have influenced his love for motoring complement the sublime illustrations. It begins with the Austin Allegro, a car that failed to win even the hearts of BL fans, and on the other end of the spectrum is the mk2 Escort — and that’s a car almost synonymous with car culture in the UK. But if you are someone who doesn’t like the early Ford Escort, you seem to have landed on the wrong side of the Internet!

Some of these cars have been praised by journalists and patrons, while others not so much. But for a moment, forget what the road-test reports said — and celebrate these oft-ignored wonders from the 70s and 80s.

A is for Allegro can be ordered from Amazon (UK) or directly from Pavilion Books.