Guild members gathered at Aston Martin Lagonda’s global HQ at Gaydon in Warwickshire for the 2019 Annual General Meeting on 9 May. In addition to the meeting itself, they were given a tour of the production facility and a fascinating design briefing by chief creative officer Marek Reichman.

Vice president Ray Hutton chaired the meeting in place of Guild president Nick Mason who is busy with his Saucerful of Secrets tour.

Members voted to update the Guild’s rules to rename the role of deputy chairman as vice chairman, to align it with the titles of the Guild’s vice presidents and to facilitate expansion of the role. Guy Loveridge was appointed as vice chairman.

The meeting also appointed two new vice presidents, Matthew Carter and Peter Burgess, and confirmed a series of committee appointments.

Aston Martin Lagonda creative director Marek Reichman gave members an interesting design briefing. Pictures by Jeff Bloxham.

Guild chairman Richard Aucock told members that in its 75th year the Guild continued to be the pre-eminent organisation for automotive editorial professionals. In a world where car makers were increasingly striving to be “premium” he suggested writers and other content creators could adopt the same aim, and that Guild membership should play a part.

Aucock also announced that a new award for early-career automotive PRs was being created in association with MIPAA, and that details of this year’s Sir William Lyons Award for young motoring writers would be revealed soon.

Honorary secretary Chris Adamson reported that there were now 509 working members in the Guild, in 18 countries, with 21 new members in the last year.

Honorary treasurer Matthew Carter told the meeting that while income was down on the previous year the Guild had generated a surplus for the seventh year in a row.

A full report on the annual general meeting will appear in the July/August edition of the Update newsletter

Guild members had a successful evening at the 2019 Newspress Awards, which were presented yesterday. Of the 15 awards made to individual journalists, Guild members won nine and were highly commended in two more.

Nick Gibbs followed up his win in the Guild/Prova PR Business Writer of the Year late last year by winning the Automotive Business Journalist award.

Automotive Editor of the Year was awarded to AutoTrader’s Erin Baker and in the Automotive Feature Writer category, Top Gear’s Paul Horrell was highly commended.

Jack Carfrae took the Automotive News Writer award, while the new Motorsport Writer category was dominated by Guild members – Maurice Hamilton winning with James Taylor highly commended. James won the Road Tester of the Year award, to add to his Guild/BCA Feature Writer of the Year commendation in 2018.

David Burgess-Wise took the Classic Car Journalist award and Darren Liggett was awarded the Automotive Regional Journalist prize, while Mike Rutherford was highly commended in the Automotive Columnist category and Paul Horrell highly commended in the Automotive Feature Writer award.

Jayson Fong collected top honours for the Automotive Photographer category after receiving a commendation for his work in the Photographer of the Year category of the 2018 Guild Awards.

In addition to the individual awards, publications featuring Guild members’ work were also given awards for achievement. Autovolt, edited by Guild member Jonathan Musk, won the award for best consumer publication. Paul Horrell’s contributions helped TopGear.com to the Automotive Website award and Lem Bingley was on hand as part of the Car Design News team which received the Automotive Business Publication award.

The evening was completed with a Lifetime Achievement Award for former Daily Star motoring journalist George Fowler, who launches a new motoring project soon.

“Guild members featured in the shortlist for every category in the 2019 Newspress Awards,” said chairman Richard Aucock. “It’s a delight to see so many of them go on to win. Our members are professionals, and such overwhelming success in these latest industry awards shows how the industry is recognising Guild members as some of the best of the best.”

“It was also touching to see long-time Guild member George Fowler recognised with the Lifetime Achievement Award. All of us are looking forward to what’s in store for him now!”

UK drivers may be required to carry an International Driving Permit (IDP) after if the UK leaves the EU without an exit deal, according to the Department for Transport. In addition, the types of IDP recognised by some countries may change.

The changes to international driving rules will provide an extra complication for professional drivers, such as motoring journalists, who need to drive outside the UK as part of their job.

Currently UK licence holders can drive in any of the European Economic Area (EEA) countries – comprising 28 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – using only their UK licence.

Outside the EEA, UK licence holders can drive in many countries if they carry the correct IDP alongside their licence. For most countries this is a 1949 IDP, but some countries require a 1926 IDP.

If the UK leaves the EU without an exit deal IDPs may be required to drive in EU and EEA countries – a 1949 IDP for Cyprus, Iceland, Malta and Spain and a 1968 IDP for other EEA countries, except Ireland which will continue to recognise UK licences.

Countries outside the EEA may require different IDPs after 29 March – only a handful of countries will continue to accept the 1926 IDP and many will require the 1968 IDP. To check which type of permit you need see the list on this page from the DfT.

How to get an IDP

You will need to apply at a main Post Office (you can find Post Offices which issue IDPs using this tool on the Post Office website).

You must be a resident of Great Britain or Northern Ireland, you must be over 18 and you will need:

• Your full UK driving licence – photocard or paper licence
• Your UK passport as proof of identification
• A passport sized photo for each IDP you wish to apply for

Each IDP application will cost £5.50. Note that you may need more than one IDP – for example if you are driving from France (1968 IDP) to Spain (1949 IDP).

The 1949 IDP lasts for a year, the 1968 IDP for three years. Some countries have their own extra rules, such as requiring holders of older paper licences to also carry photo ID.

Award-winning motoring journalists, photographers, broadcasters and automotive authors from the UK and Europe attended the presentation of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Annual Awards on Thursday 29 November at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London.

A record-breaking 284 submissions (the most ever received in the 74 year history of the Guild) were entered in the categories open to professional motoring writers, authors, broadcasters and photographers plus categories for aspiring young journalists and those making a special contribution to motoring and motorsport.

Click each winner’s name to see their winning entry (note some are large files and may take some time to download).

AA Campaigning Journalist of the Year

Winner: Alex Grant
Presented by AA head of PR Ian Crowder
Highly Commended:  Louise Cole/Maria McCarthy

British Car Auctions Feature Writer of the Year

Winner: Richard Webber
Presented by BCA public relations manager Tim Naylor
Highly Commended: Rachel Boagey/James Taylor

GKN Driveline Consumer Journalist of the Year

Winner: Claire Evans (part 2)
Presented by GKN Driveline director of marketing and communications Rachael Griffiths
Highly Commended: Christofer Lloyd/Maria McCarthy

GOMW Driver of the Year

Winner: Billy Monger
Presented by Guild chairman Richard Aucock and BRDC president Paddy Hopkirk

GOMW Photographer of the Year – General

Winner: Drew Gibson

Presented by GOMW deputy chairman Andrew Noakes
Highly Commended: Matt Howell/Olgun Kordal

GOMW Photographer of the Year – Motorsport

Winner: Jakob Ebrey
Presented by GOMW deputy chairman Andrew Noakes
Highly Commended: Kel Edge/Jayson Fong

GOMW Rider of the Year

Winner: Jake Dixon
Presented by Guild chairman Richard Aucock and BRDC president Paddy Hopkirk

IAM RoadSmart Safety Award

Winner: David Williams (part 2)
Presented by IAM RoadSmart senior communications executive Rodney Kumar
Highly Commended: Louise Cole/Gustavo Ruffo

Market Engineering Award for Automotive Technology Journalism

Winner: Nick Hull
Presented by Marketing Engineering managing director Richard Gotch
Highly Commended: John Evans/Jorn Madslien

Mercedes-Benz Award for the Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy

First: Karl Ludvigsen for his book on Reid RailtonPresented by Mercedes-Benz communications director Debbie Hull and National Motor Museum public relations manager Jane Riddiford

Second: Jonathan Wood

Third: Graham Rabagliati

Newspress Young Writer of the Year

Winner: Jack Phillips (part 2, part 3)
Presented by GOMW honorary secretary Chris Adamson
Highly Commended: Alex Kalinauckas/Sophie Williamson-Stothert

Pemberton Trophy

Winner: Giles Chapman
Presented by Guild chairman Richard Aucock

Peter James Insurance Editor of the Year

Winner: Laurie Caddell (collected on his behalf by Clive Harrington)
Presented by Martin Raybould, head of business relationships, Shield Total Insurance
Highly Commended: Ben Klemenszon/Chris Rees

Peugeot Motorsport Cup

Winner: Vaishali Dinakaran (part 2, part 3)
Presented by Peugeot media relations executive Mason Finney
Highly Commended: James Taylor/Dan Trent

Phil Llewellin Student Journalist of the Year
sponsored by CAR

Winner: Emily Macbeth
Presented by Beth Llewellin and CAR Magazine’s Phil McNamara
Highly Commended: Guy Hirst/Jake Horton

President’s Trophy

Winner: Dr Andy Palmer, Aston Martin
Presented by Guild chairman Richard Aucock

Prova PR Business Writer of the Year

Winner: Nick Gibbs (part 2, part 3)
Presented by Prova PR managing director Richard Postins
Highly Commended: Lem Bingley/Martin Kahl

Renault UK / The Guild of Motoring Writers’ Journalist of the Year

First: John Evans (part 2, part 3)
Presented by Guild chairman Richard Aucock and Renault UK communications director Matthew Bendall

Second: Erin Baker

Third: Christofer Lloyd

RM Sotheby’s Classic Writer of the Year

Winner: Mick Walsh (part 2)
Presented by RM Sotheby’s Europe COO Greg Anderson
Highly Commended: Sam Dawson/Greg Macleman

Sir William Lyons Award sponsored by Jaguar

Winner: Luke Chillingsworth
Presented by Michael Quinn and Jaguar’s Adam Calland
Highly Commended: Nathan Hine/Alex Whitworth

Special Commendation for a Contribution to Motoring
sponsored by Kia

Winner: Thatcham Research, collected by head of research Matthew Avery
Presented by Kia commercial director Simon Hetherington and Guild chairman Richard Aucock

Congratulations to all the winners! 

Pictures by Jeff Bloxham

The Guild’s Sir Williams Lyons Award is searching for the best young writer with an interest in cars and motoring. The winner will receive a cheque for £1000, a trophy and a year’s Provisional membership of the Guild.

Sponsored by Jaguar Cars, the company Sir William Lyons founded, the award is open to anyone aged between 17 and 25 who is not already employed and working as a motoring journalist.

Finalists will be invited to the Guild’s Annual Dinner and Awards on Thursday 29 November at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London, where the winner will be announced by Channel 4’s Formula One commentator Ben Edwards. The award will be presented by Sir William Lyons’ grandson Michael Quinn.

First presented in 1966, the award has proved to be an important entry point into the industry for many well-known names. Previous winners include:

• Tony Dron (Motor, Classic Cars and Daily Telegraph)
• Michael Le Caplain (production editor Classic Car Weekly)
• Alistair Weaver (vice president of editorial and editor in chief at Edmunds USA)
• George Barrow (editor, Van Adviser)
• Tim Pollard (digital editor in chief, CAR magazine)
• current Guild chairman Richard Aucock (managing director at Motoring Research).

To enter this year’s competition candidates will need to write a 500-word editorial story selecting from one of three topics:

• What will the premium car of 2030 be like?
• What is the most significant piece of emerging automotive technology today?
• Who do you think is the greatest British racing driver of all time?

The judges will be looking for an original, well written and researched piece of work that shows an individual style and approach to the chosen subject matter.

The closing date for entries is midday Monday 12 November.

All finalists will receive a year’s Provisional Membership of the Guild and their stories will be published on the Guild website.

Full details and an entry form may be obtained by emailing: generalsec@gomw.co.uk.

The last winner of the award was Helèna Hicks, seen above receiving the trophy from Jaguar design director Ian Callum (left), Michael Quinn (far right) and then Guild chairman Andrew Noakes (centre right).