Leonard Setright was one of the twentieth century's most influential and idiosyncratic motoring journalists. Long Lane with Turnings is a memoir of his early years and the author's last book, left unfinished at the time of his death in 2005.<BR>Here we encounter Setright as a child standing behind his father's driving seat in the family Wolseley, enjoining him to 'Go fast!'; taking an early delight in machines of all sorts, from the camera-like precision of the Setright ticket machine for bus conductors (manufactured by his father's firm) to his first bicycle, ridden on blissfully empty roads in wartime, his way lit by a Lucas acetylene lamp.<BR>We also see him developing the independence of mind which so characterized his writing: readers will savour his pitch-perfect descriptions of the many cars that he drove. The portrait of the writer which emerges from these pages is marvelously detailed, quirky and full of warmth.