Again, engines very solid.OR YOU COULD TRY…Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV (pre-’76) – juicy as a ripe tomato and with the structural integrity to match, but what a gorgeous shape, what a stunning engine, what a peerless gearbox…JAGUAR E TYPE 2+2 COUPE 1967-71 pounds 10,000 PLUSWHY BUY?Left-handed drive, automatic, and yours for less than pounds 10,000 at auction Then, swap gearbox for manual, move steering wheel Simple.WHAT TO WATCHReject recent resprays “Structure is crucial, check sills, floor, rear suspension. Engines are tough, but rebuilding costs up to pounds 4,000,” says Thorogood. Insist on an inspection.OR YOU COULD TRY…Aston Martin DBS6, if you’ve got the cojones (taking Fergie shopping could be cheaper option, though) Chevy Corvette. Maserati Mexico.JENSEN INTERCEPTOR 1967-76 pounds 6,500WHY BUY?To cruise Kings Road wearing sideburns and sunglasses “Bloody good value,” says Brown.

“All engine problems solvable with off-the-shelf parts,” says Brooks. “You’ll get a stunning one for under pounds 10,000″ says Hardyment.WHAT TO WATCH”For goodness sake, look out for structural problems [sills and bulkheads],” says Brooks. 7.2 litres have Oliver Reed thirst (11mpg) and can overheat.OR YOU COULD TRY…Mercedes 220S/SE Coupe Lancia Falminia Coupe – the most beautiful car ever made. Don’t argue.PORSCHE 912 1965-70 912E 1976-77 pounds 5-6,500WHY BUY?The 912, with its smaller motor, gives slightly less performance, but handles better than the pendulous 911 Better fuel economy too. Reliable.WHAT TO WATCHJeff Moyes at AFN, Chiswick, London: “Body condition is very important but the post-1976 USA spec cars were galvanised so are the best buy.” Beware noisy/smokey motors and rusty heat exchangers.OR YOU COULD TRY…Porsche 356 – a purist’s choice but prices rising fast. Fiat Dino Coupe has lyrical Ferrari engine.FIAT 124 SPORT SPYDER 2000 1966-85 pounds 5,000WHY BUY?Elegant and eye-catching Groovy twin cam Loads of cheap imports around.

You don’t really want an MGB Roadster do you?WHAT TO WATCHRot to buggery Watch suspension, mounts and front-wheel arches Most left-handed drive, though conversions plausible. USA emission controls troublesome – remove and take less deep breaths. “FIAT – Fix It Again, Tony,” warns acronym-friendly Brown.OR YOU COULD TRY…Alfa Spyder – cliched but fab. And, okay if you insist, MBG Roadsters are very sensible.FURTHER INFORMATIONAndrew Thorogood Restorations, 0171 720 8616; The Garage On The Green, 0171 384 1100; Brooks Auctioneers, 0171 228 8000 (next sale February 22 at Olympia); John Brown, 01763 852200 (Prices are for sound, usable cars, not show condition And, no, I don’t like MGs).. Who owns Yeats’s life? It seems odd to pose the question more than half a century after his death, but for Irish people it still resonates.

His huge international reputation is securely based on the mystery and grandeur of his late verse and the poignancy of his love-poetry, but he first came to fame as the exotically Celtic poet of a “new” nationalist Ireland: almost singlehanded, he made Irishness culturally fashionable. Spearheading a great cultural renaissance, he moved into his maturity as the voice of his country, memorialising her heroes, sitting as a Senator in her independent parliament, winning the Nobel Prize, dying full of years and honours. Yet throughout his career he sustained an angry, quarrelsome, ambivalent relationship with much of Irish life; and for his first 50 years he lived more in England than Ireland. He was attacked in Ireland for the decadence, occultism and sensuality of his verse and the arrogant iconoclasm of his public utterances – and, indeed, his personal style. His reputation was violently fought over for years after he died, and much of this quarrel revolved around the issue of whether “England” or “Ireland” should claim him. Having completed the first volume of his biography, which takes him up to 1914, I am unsurprised by this.

It would certainly not have surprised the poet himself.
The question of contested possession raises itself early on. I am still haunted by the indiscreet but revealing reaction of one soi-disant Dublin intellectual when I referred to Yeats’s background as a “marginalised Protestant”: “How dare you say that – he was as Irish as I am.” There are still those who think Protestant background negates “true” Irishness, even if they are mercifully thinner on the ground than they used to be. Though Yeats’s immediate family were strong nationalists, his background was that of the declining Protestant bourgeoisie, civil servants and clerics rather than landowners, with roots stretching back to the centuries of dispossession and ascendancy. This was not only an inheritance he rediscovered in middle age; it conferred a burden which he carried from his youth, and in Ireland it would have been self-evident to anyone he met as soon as he opened his mouth. Much of his early life was spent trying to demonstrate to people that “marginalised Protestants” could be as Irish as anyone else – not always a popular case to make.