I spent yesterday afternoon with the author, Hunter Davies. HD has ghosted many autobiographies – Wayne Rooney, John Prescott, Gazza and the only authorised biography of the Beatles.

The book is still in print today and some of the money from that 1968 book was used to buy a £5,000 house in Highgate and a car, a Jaguar.

Back in the sixties and seventies, a Jaguar was the height of middle class aspiration. Instantly recognisable, the distinction shape was very much part of the attraction.

So the fact HD couldn’t tell what car I’d parked outside his house says buckets about car styling these days. He wasn’t sure if it was a Mondeo, a Hyundai or a VW.

The Xf is a pretty car but it has slipped into that wishy-washy world of rather faceless machines, styled by computer aerodynamic rather than emotion…