Roger Deeley is known affectionately as Le Boss to most of his competitors. Well, let's qualify that. Most of the time it's reasonably affectionately, though situations do arise from time to time when people can be seen positively foaming at the mouth when his name is even so much as mentioned. This especially seems to happen when they've gone wrong on a rally somewhere and ended up in the middle of nowhere, all because of some of his even-more-than-usually dastardly directions. It's for this reason that he bears the other name:

Devious Deeley.

Roger Deeley is known for his trademark flowing white locks and big old motor cars. In the past these cars always seemed to be white, and nothing could persuade people that this was mere coincidence, but recent events may have changed that belief. Although he still owns and cherishes his pride and joy, the old (and white) 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, the (white) Jaguar Mk 1 he used to have is now gone, as is the (white) Silver Spirit, and the (white) Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite was taken over semi-permanently by the lady in his life, until she moved on from that and got an M.G.B Roadster instead (although that one is white too). Not only that, but the recent acquisition of a red and silver T-type Bentley has blown everything.

Roger Deeley is a well known, nay, notorious figure in motoring and classic car circles, and is a member of various motor clubs. In fact he even founded one once, centuries ago, it seems now, though such is the way of the world, not to mention club committee politics, that he was unceremoniously chucked out from his own club a few years later. He has competed in motor sport on and off for years, everything from club level to autotests, sprints, hillclimbs, trials and of course historic rallying, and even though by his own admission he is now old, decrepit and totally past it, he still has a go at this last one now and again just to keep his hand in. And since on his last foray he managed to come second overall and first in class, you could say that he's not all talk.

Roger Deeley was a leader in the current trend for continental classic car rallies, since his Claret and Classics event, which began back in 1984 before any of the others had thought of the idea, can almost be said to have started it all up. His life is very involved with classic cars generally, in that as well as rally organizing he judges and commentates at events up and down the country (when asked), but he has always had other strings to his bow as well. Not only is he a professional artist and portrait painter (commissions for all or any of these gladly accepted; form an orderly queue, no jostling please), but he has worked as a journalist on and off for years in various publications - no, not necessarily anything to do with cars at all - as well as being a regular author, with several historical novels to his credit. He has just finished a book on the private lives (oh all right then, the sex lives) of the monarchs of England, which is away with an agent at the moment. Yet with all of these writings to his credit, one of his proudest boasts is that way back when he was writing "The Bash Street Kids" in the Beano, it was him that actually invented the name of Winston for the janitor's cat. It's a funny old world.

His hobbies include international worm wrestling, carpet jumping and declaiming in coils. His ambitions are to manufacture seventeen certitudes while whistling in Welsh, and to build a life-size explodable statue of Napoleon III in the bath out of wet putty and string. Now we're getting silly, aren't we? - Ed.

Deeley Classics  50 Uphill Way Uphill Weston - super - Mare Somerset BS23 4TN England

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