Graham Robson Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

15 August 2021 Comments 2 Comments

It was typical of my dear friend of 47 years that he wrote his own advance obituary, for Classic and Sports Car. Graham Robson always planned ahead. I quote from it below, hoping to approximate the magnitude of our loss.

Alec Arthur Graham Robson 1936-2021

Graham was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, the only child of Clifford and Kathleen Robson. He was educated locally before going to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read Engineering. His first job was as a graduate trainee at Jaguar Cars in 1957. His subsequent career became a perfect training path for someone destined to become a leading author.…

Read More Read More

Just Published! “Triumph Cars”: Tribute to a famous British marque

16 October 2018 Comments 2 Comments

A True Triumph

We are bowled over by the sheer volume of color, beauty and depth of photographs in the latest and greatest edition of Triumph Cars: The Complete Story. Largely this was the effort of my co-author Graham Robson, but I never expected such a high quality treatment by the publishers. A big, square format, 10×10 inches, it’s chock-a-block with lavish illustrations from the first spindly Triumph 10/20 of 1923 to the last, badge-engineered Triumph Acclaim of 1984. There are even appendices on Triumph-derived cars like the Bond Equipe, Amphicar, Peerless and Swallow Doretti.…

Read More Read More

1935 Triumph 8C Dolomite: The Big One….Is Back

25 August 2018 Comments 0 Comments

Jonathan Wood, Donald Healey’s 8C Triumph Dolomite. Wetherby, Yorkshire: Jonathan Turner & Tim Whitworth, 2017, 300 pages, profusely illustrated in color and b&w, $275. Available from the publishers. Written for The Vintage Triumph Register.

Donald Healey’s Dolomite

In 1977 I wrote the pre-World War II chapters of Triumph Cars, now reappearing in an expanded new edition, thanks largely to my co-author Graham Robson (blatant plug, please order).

At the time, though, there was little to describe about Triumph’s most impressive failure, the legendary straight-eight Dolomite. The only one built by the factory had come to grief (along, almost, with Donald Healey) at a railway crossing on the 1935 Monte Carlo Rallye.…

Read More Read More

“The Vintage Triumph” and Triumphs in My Life

30 March 2015 Comments 0 Comments

All Triumphs All the Time: Issue 150 of The Vintage Triumph magazine, 2015

Harry Barnes was to have been our first editor, but quickly decided he couldn’t do it. I was elected, producing issues 1-18 from 1974 to 1977. Looking at those productions, I’m struck that while Triumphs haven’t changed much else has in half a lifetime.

Annual dues were $10—equal to $48 today, but didn’t buy as much. Imagine a world without computers! You printed off sheets of clean, “camera-ready” type. We couldn’t afford typesetting; those who didn’t have electric typewriters put a brand new ribbon in their Remingtons and banged hard on the keys.…

Read More Read More

Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

28 May 2009 Comments 0 Comments

"As a long-time bulldog owner (you have met various of my much-loved mutts) I am at once delighted and appalled by what is being proposed. The Kennel Club (if you want an historic parallel, think of the Gestapo or George Orwell's Thought Police) is now demanding changes to what is known as the written standard for some dogs—not just bulldogs, but other breeds too. They will eventually get their way, but it will take decades of selective breeding to produce a series to a “new” standard." —Graham Robson

Read More Read More