Happy Birthday James May – The Grand Tour Host turns 58

On this day 58 years ago, a baby was born in Bristol, England. This baby was named James Daniel May. James is one of four children; he has two sisters and a brother. When May was a young boy he attended Caerleon Endowed Junior School in Newport, England. As a teenager, James lived in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church.

James was keen on music, studying the subject at Pendle College, Lancaster University and after graduating he briefly worked at a hospital in Chelsea as a records officer and had a short stint in the civil service. He was fired, according to himself.

During the early 1980s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later Autocar magazine. During his employment for Autocar, James pulled a ‘prank’ which ended up costing him his job. Since then, he has written for several publications, including the regular column ‘England Made Me’ in Car Magazine, articles for Top Gear magazine, and a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph.

As for his television career, James started with doing things such as presenting Driven on Channel 4 in 1998 and has worked doing various things on many many more types of TV programs. He first started as a co-presenter on Top Gear in 1999 and become full time Top Gear co-presenter when the show was revived in 2003. This is when he received his (still to this day) famous nickname, ‘Captain Slow’, due to his very careful driving habits.

Up to this day James has been extremely busy with life from Top Gear to The Grand Tour, and more recently ‘James May: Our Man In Japan’ and ‘Oh Cook!’, but he will always return home to his partner of 20 years, Sarah Frater. Not only that but he has puts a great amount of work into both DriveTribe and FoodTribe – companies he owns alongside Clarkson and Hammond. He has entertained for as long as I can remember and for that we thank you sir!

 

As for this day it is your day, Captain Slow! May it be a fun, exciting and memorable day. Happy Birthday May!