New book Crowning Glory reveals Royal Family's lengthy 'love affair' with a Milton Keynes business

Crowning Glory - The Royal Family’s love affair with Aston Martin Cars of Newport Pagnell by Steve Larner also reveals how Aston Martin craftsmen saved Princess Diana’s blushes after she sat on the wing of Prince Charles’ DB6, and the undercover role of company technicians when the same car

stole the show at William and Kate’s wedding.

“Previous books about Aston Martin have mentioned the cars driven by royalty but this is the most comprehensive look at who in the British Royal Family owned which model and when,” said Steve, who is former Deputy Editor of the Milton Keynes Citizen.

“And we tell the previously unpublished stories behind those cars and acknowledge the part played by Newport Pagnell, the company’s spiritual home.”

The cars include Prince Philip’s 1954 Lagonda, his and the young Queen Elizabeth’s ‘getaway car’, and Charles’ DB6, bought for him by The Queen in 1969 and still going strong, as well as other perhaps lesser known Aston Martins His Royal Highness has owned and those driven by other members of the Royal Family.

Throughout the hit series The Crown, Prince Charles (played by Josh O'Connor) drives himself in a Aston Martin DB6 Volante very similar to the model owned by the real prince,

The book also covers the scale model Aston Martins including the 007 DB5 hand-built at Newport Pagnell at eye watering cost and presented to a young Prince Andrew. Its spectacular arrival on the factory floor during a royal visit and with a six-year-old boy at the wheel is recalled for the first time

in more than 50 years.

How the intervention of a Prince at a dinner party in Italy helped save the company in the 1980s is told in detail, as well as a look at how a marriage of royalty and the James Bond movie franchise catapulted Aston Martin into a becoming a global brand.

Delays in releasing this book caused by Covid-19 allowed Steve to update the story with the latest developments within the company itself and even the discovery of a previously unknown royal Aston Martin in the summer of 2020.

He said: “Researching this book has, even after many years covering this extraordinary car maker, surprised me with the extent of the loyalty shown by the Royal Family to Aston Martin, the company’s outstanding commitment to its customers and the very real pride the people of Newport

Pagnell have in that royal connection.”

Crowning Glory - The Royal Family’s love affair with Aston Martin Cars of Newport Pagnell by Steve Larner is published by Newport Pagnell-based WordGo and available now for £12 as a standalone volume or as part of a three-book set celebrating 200 years of road transport in Newport for £20.

For more information and to order visit wordgo.org.uk.