The music man

The son of a priest, James May was born in Bristol and – true to fogeyish form – developed an interest in classical music at an early age. In fact he was a bit of a dab hand himself when it came to instruments, learning the flute, saxophone and piano, although nowadays he's a bit rubbish with the first two.

He went onto study music at university and, despite the frankly unhealthy love of cars common to all Top Gear presenters, is still passionate about Bach and Beethoven. Although he also does also like The Who, which is what passes for "pop music" in the May universe.

Odd jobbing

After university James embarked on an array of exciting jobs, including "filing clerk" and "bloke who assembles cardboard boxes in a factory". Then his natural creativity came forth in a torrent, and he became a freelance hack writing leaflets and booklets for various clients.

Finally realising he needed a proper job, he applied to a magazine for the position of sub-editor, despite not actually knowing what a sub-editor was. The magazine in question was The Engineer, a trade journal which was perfect for James as it was founded in 1856. James was hired, mainly because "the guy hated interviewing people. He thought if he gave me the job he wouldn't have to interview anyone else." Which is one way of dealing with recruitment issues.

Getting fired, the May way

James's interest in motoring led to him hopping over to a car magazine, but his time there was cut short in 1992 when he was fired for a little joke he played while very, very bored.

He was editing a special supplement on cars which consisted of several entries each beginning with a big red capital letter. Striking a noble blow against the Establishment, James carefully edited the magazine so that, when the red letters were read in order, they spelt out a message saying that the magazine in question was boring and "a pain in the arse". Not one of his editors actually noticed this, but they found out when several readers – thinking they'd win a prize – wrote in saying they'd spotted the message.

Fortunately, James bounced back from getting the boot and became a freelancer, then turned up on breakfast telly some time later and was subsequently asked to present a Channel 4 motoring series. Then he hopped over to the Beeb for Top Gear.

Fantasy Car Garage

Forget presenting one of the world's favourite car shows. James's actual proudest achievement – and the reason he will be remembered generations from now – is creating Fantasy Car Garage.

To play the game, you need yourself and another very bored car nut. Then you get two small ad magazines, say Auto Trader and Exchange & Mart. One of you picks a category – such as "German, four door, under £10,000". Then each player goes through their magazine and the first to find a car fitting this category shouts "Garage!" and the other player has 30 seconds to find another one. Whoever has the best car cuts the ad out and sticks it on a piece of paper, and the first to get 20 cars wins. The other thing you need to play this game is a very large bottle of tequila, because it's the only way you will have any fun at all.

May's top motors

James has a special fondness for classic, fat cat cars like Rolls Royces and Bentleys, but he also loves average, run-of-the-mill motors (he admits to suffering from a special fever that can only be satisfied by buying a second-hand Vauxhall). And if you're a girl with a crush on James, then it's worth knowing he likes "a dishevelled arty bird driving something like a knackered convertible. A nice girl in a crap car – it's the motoring equivalent of erotic naked mud-wrestling".

And when he's not busy having very peculiar sexual fantasies, James also has a passion for flying. He's a qualified pilot, don't you know.