L. J. K. Setright

L. J. K. Setright
Born	(1931-08-10)10 August 1931 London
Died
Occupation	Air traffic controller, lawyer, author, journalist
Alma mater	University College London
Genre	Non-fiction history and technology
Subject	Automotive and motorcycling
Notable awards	Gwen Salmon Trophy for automotive photography, fellow Institute of Mechanical Engineers (1969), fellow Institute of Rubber Industries (1970)

Leonard John Kensell Setright (10 August 1931 – 7 September 2005) was an English motoring journalist and author.

Born of Australian parents in London, his father Henry Roy Setright, was an engineer who invented the Setright ticket machine used on buses and trams. Setright studied Law at the University of London and practised for a time but hated the profession. His National Service was served in the Royal Air Force as an air traffic controller.

After writing for the engineering magazine Machine Age in the early 1960s, Setright became a motoring journalist and author, contributing to Car Magazine for more than 30 years and writing several books on cars and automotive engineering. Setright's writing style polarised readers as some considered it to be pompous and excessively esoteric, while others found his erudite style and engineering knowledge a welcome change from the usual lightweight and largely non-technical journalistic style. He had a strong enthusiasm for Bristol Cars and for Japanese engineering, and Honda in particular.

Setright also wrote about music, motorcycles and high-fidelity sound systems, and contributed to, among others, Punch, The Independent, Bike,Motorcycle Sport under the initials LJKS, Back Street Heroes and Car and Driver. Setright was also known for his love of smoking tobacco, in particular Sobranie Black Russian cigarettes, and for his elegant sartorial style. He was described as resembling "a gaunt Old Testament prophet in Savile Row clothes".

Setright was a practising Jew and a scholar of Judaism. Married twice, his first wife Christine committed suicide in 1980. After this he spent some time in a Lubavitch community in Texas, later returning to the UK. He died of cancer in 2005.

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