Mr David Lancaster
I grew up in West London and attended the University of Warwick between 1984 – 1987 gaining a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Literature. From there, I began work as the deputy editor on MotorCycle International, a title launched and published by Mark Williams, formerly of International Times and Oz.
I have worked in both television and print media, and briefly in radio. In broadcast I was a researcher on the Channel Four show Ride-On, presented and produced by Muriel Gray, then joined BBC2’s Top Gear as a researcher and director. In 2004 and 2005 I was script editor on the BBC2 food programme Full On Food. For Radio 4’s Afternoon Shift, I wrote and presented several first person pieces and have been a guest on Radio Five on several occasions. In print, I was deputy editor of the Times Weekend section and motoring editor on the paper, and contributed Op-Ed pieces and columns to both the Times and Daily Express, as well as writing for numerous motorcycle, lifestyle and travel magazines.
I have launched two titles. Firstly, after taking the name and concept of the food, drink and travel magazine EatSoup to IPC Magazines, it launched 1996. EatSoup carried major interviews with Michael Caine, Marco Pierre White, Sir Terence Conran, Gordon Ramsay along with contributions from writers such as Will Self, Len Deighton, David Bowker and Nick Blincoe. With colleagues, I raised the private finance to launch Restaurant magazine in 2002 and a year later we launched its sister Restaurant Top 50 Awards. Restaurant is now published by William Reed Business Media and the Top 50 Awards is published every spring.
I am a regular contributor to the moto-lifestyle website Southsiders MC and in spring 2015 I penned the introduction to former Clash member Paul Simonon’s book Wot No Bike (published by Anomie Publishing) which accompanied the exhibition of his motorcycle themed paintings at the ICA. I am a writer for The Ride: 2nd Gear, a book on contemporary hand built motorcycles and their builders, which is published by Gestalten in October 2015.
Between 2003 and 2005 I was a committee member of London Travel Watch, a statutory body appointed by the GLA. The committee regularly quizzed the Mayor and senior personnel from bodies such as British Transport Police and TFL about transport issues in the capital.
From 2001 to 2005 I was a trustee of Borough Market, London’s oldest market. During this time the market saw considerable growth and refurbishment, filed its first audited accounts and became a registered charity.
My current projects include conducting research and interviews for Vincent Tales – a large format book, chronicling the life stories of those who designed, built and raced the highly collectable, record-breaking Vincent motorcycles. The work combines industrial and motoring history with first person eyewitness reports from the likes of world car and motorcycle champion John Surtees, OBE. It is due for publication in 2017.