Lewis Hamilton won the World F1 title for the fifth time yesterday but the first Briton to do so was Mike Hawthorn in 1958. Having retired from motor racing, he was killed in a road accident the following year. In the 1980s, there was a programme called The Rock’n’Roll Years. Brilliantly simple format: News footage from a particular year accompanied by a soundtrack of hits from that year. I was watching it with my girlfriend and her mother, who’d been engaged to Mike Hawthorn at the time of his death. The featured year was 1958. Suddenly he was on screen being interviewed after winning the title. Years before YouTube, this was the first time my girlfriend’s mum had heard his voice or seen a moving image of him since he died and as she ran from the room sobbing, this was the accompanying track. Though Tragic Moments would have been more appropriate.
The original Lewis Hamilton.

- It was a quot...14th May 2016
- To Finch's in...12th May 2016
- The greatest ...11th May 2016
- Farewell to U...10th May 2016
- Happy Birthda...8th May 2016
- Why no jazz f...6th May 2016
- Oh God. I sh...5th May 2016
- Leicester Cit...3rd May 2016
- A death you m...2nd May 2016
- To the paint ...27th Apr 2016
- The Bard.25th Apr 2016
- The London Ma...24th Apr 2016
- The Man who o...23rd Apr 2016
- The Queen at ...21st Apr 2016
- RIP Victoria ...20th Apr 2016 prev next