REVIEWS & TESTIMONIALS

'Brilliant day after digging my car out of the snow in Derbyshire! The GT40 and BRM talks were fresh and educating. Stallholders and artists very chatty and a nice selection of metal on the ground floor to take up any spare minutes. Not that many fanatics attended and those that dithered over spending a few quid missed a treat and should make it a diary date for next year. Well done Porter Press, hope to see you in 2024.'

'Please pass on my thanks and congratulations to all involved in organising the event. 'I thoroughly enjoyed the two days of talks etc and came away with several lovely books.'

'It was a pleasure to be a part of Porter Press’s first @motoringliteraryartfestival. Until next Year.'

'Thanks to the @motoringliteraryartfestival. What a fantastic weekend!'

I thought the whole event was excellent, the only problem being trying to juggle who to see and who to miss.

I hope you've all recovered from the weekend. I thought it was a fabulous event, and it's amazing how the Porter Press team managed to organise it all – I can see it was a huge amount of work for such a small team. Congratulations to all.

Just want to say a huge thank you for all your kind assistance and reserving seats for me for the 5 discussion events and the Stewart film that I was able to attend over both days. I also bought a number of great books and it was an absolute joy to meet all the special Panel guests who were all without exception so warm and engaging . I thought the organisation by all the Porter Press staff and the weekend volunteers was fantastic and all the exhibitors stands were quite enthralling.

'Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed the event yesterday and the 3 lectures I attended. 'Returned home with a number of purchases for both myself and friends who will enjoy the books and prints on sale. 'Definitely Alexander Hesketh was the most entertaining speaker. 'Thank you once again and do hope the event was a great success.'

We hope you felt that the Literary Festival at Silverstone over the weekend was a success. We certainly enjoyed it although it did do quite a lot of damage to our credit card. All the exhibiters were ready to engage and happy to be helpful even when they didn't have the item we were searching for and/or didn't purchase from them. The day was a good mixture of meeting up with friends and dealers whom we knew and also making new contacts. The talks we attended were entertaining. We hope that you will feel that it will be worthwhile to do again...

I’m still warming up from a weekend in a pit garage at Silverstone - however being surrounded by these automotive heavyweights was a pleasure @motoringliteraryartfestival

'Just a very short note to say I really enjoyed the session with John and Richard…It was an amazing event…and well done….I hope it worked for you…!!!!'

On the basis of the enthusiasm, interest and passion, for the depth and breadth of the festival, it seemed to me your vision was a triumph. I felt privileged to be part of it, not least, thanks to you, it gave such a wonderful sense of occasion to the launch my book.

From my point of view, it was a great opportunity to acquire some books I'd been thinking about getting for some time and to consider having a painting commissioned. The three Sunday sessions I went to (Lord Hesketh, BRM panel and Damien Smith-Benetton) were all excellent. With Pat Symonds joining Damien Smith at the latter, I did think what a rare opportunity it was for followers of F1 to have some face-to-face discussion with an individual involved in FOM, the FIA, or, indeed, the Liberty Media Corporation. The 'star cars' looked fantastic in their brightly lit setting too. Many thanks once again.

A very good selection of speakers mostly from The Golden Era and we all probably felt Lord Hesketh was outstanding, what a shame his number one driver couldn’t make it! I chatted with many old friends and made a few new ones as a bonus.

'Very many thanks for staging your Literary Festival. I only attended on Sunday but it was still a super experience. 'More please in 2024.'

'I attended the Festival on Saturday I felt I had to contact you to thank you for the truly magical day I spent there. I thought the organisation of the event was absolutely superb, the line-up of speakers and cars was amazing and the Festival staff including the Coventry University students were all so helpful (including assistance in carrying purchases to my car at the end of the day..!). I felt somehow that I had been allowed to become part of a happy family for a day! Your valued personal contributions and enthusiasm must have left you exhausted and at one stage I thought there must have been two of you! The whole experience left a smile on my face and it was so well worth - what turned out to be - a 6-hour round trip from my home in Essex. My one regret is that because of other commitments I could not make this a two-day visit. I was pleased to be able to thank you personally before leaving on Saturday and do earnestly trust that you will be able to source a sponsor so that this Festival can become a regular event – I think it would be such a valuable and much-needed addition to the motor sport calendar in this country, nicely complementing February’s Race Retro in the ‘off-season’ for ordinary motor sport enthusiasts like me. 'Thanks too for the amazing books you produce – with four more volumes added to my collection at the weekend my bookshelves are beginning to cry ‘enough’ (a cry I will ignore..!) 'Thanks again.'

'Great weekend working at Silverstone for the Porter Press @motoringliteraryartfestival, fantastic guests, beautiful cars and a memorable experience.'

Just wanted to send you a brief message to thank you and Sam for allowing me to attend your Literary Festival Event yesterday. I had a wonderful time as well as making some new friends and thoroughly enjoyed the day. It’s a pity that there weren’t more people in attendance, but perhaps it will be better next year. I have already been posting some photos of the cars with my friends on social media and have already had many enquires about the event. Once again my grateful thanks to you and your team and may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year

Just to thank you for including me in the inaugural literary festival last weekend. I was really delighted and honoured to be a small part of what was a great initiative into which you had obviously put a great deal of effort and was extremely well executed..

Already the first Motoring Literary & Art Festival at Silverstone has become part of history but the thoughts about this great event are still vivid in our memories. More so, it has been an important conference and we definitely hope it will be the first of a long succession. We thoroughly enjoyed to be participating in this first of - hopefully - many such conferences to follow. To bring us enthusiasts of Classic Automobiles together with principal creators of our cars, to hear major voices on the past and future of classics and discuss favourite topics with old friends and new acquaintances has been an enchanting experience. Purposeful additions to the talks and interviews were the exhibits of automobile literature and art by their exponents. And an enjoyment to eyes and heart was supplied by the exhibition of important automobiles. All in all the result of an inordinate amount of organizational skills and plain old work behind the scenes. Georg and I admired the atmosphere, the administrators and helpers, always friendly and happy in giving assistance to the attendees.