You may recall that I wrote a blog in December reflecting on my step-daughter’s crash late at night on the M1 which resulted in her Mini being written off. Not a pleasant phone call to take, I can assure you!

All the media furore and ensuing debate about older drivers following the Duke of Edinburgh’s recent decision to voluntarily hand in his driving licence at the aged of 97 - and the crash that preceded his decision - has struck a personal chord with me.

It’s not every day you overhear someone recounting a tale of high-speed motorway driving, making contact with another vehicle at great speed, going in the wrong direction and seemingly being quite proud of it all.

As a bit of a naturalised southerner I often find myself coming out with phrases such as, ‘there are some cracking bits of road in Hertfordshire’ or ‘you don’t have to get far away from London to get to some proper driver’s roads’ and of course both of those phrases are true (honestly), but if pushed on the subject of my favourite road I need to go much further north.

What was your bedtime reading as a child? Depending on your era, was it the Famous Five, Winnie the Pooh, Ben 10, Spongebob, or something off an iPad? For me as a motoring obsessed youngster in the 80s, it was the latest issue of What Car?