An iconoclast is someone who deliberately sets out to challenge cherished beliefs.

Back in 1993, I suggested to Joe Judt, the then editor of the Citroënian, that it might be worth writing a column for the magazine that would do precisely that. Joe expressed some reservations - he thought that if I were too provocative, I might be forced to resign from the Citroën Car Club . In order to pre-empt this, he subtitled the column "An occasional and deliberately provocative column". In the event, the column has become a regular fixture in the magazine and there have been few brickbats and quite a few bouquets directed my way.
Citroëns are not perfect but all too often, in our enthusiasm for the marque, we forget our objectivity. In the early days of the column, I confined myself to pointing out the shortcomings of the cars and this led to some interesting debates in the Letters pages. After a while, I ran out of cars to dissect - either because I had never driven or owned them or because I knew next to nothing about them.
I therefore extended my brief to include the activities and philosophy of Citroën UK Ltd. and SA Automobiles Citroën, both of whom came in for a degree of criticism. The following articles contain criticisms which were valid when published but of course times have changed. Fairly recently, the CCC has re-established good relations with Slough and I hope that my contributions helped facilitate rather than hinder this process. 
However, some of these essays contain criticisms that are no longer valid and they should be read with that point in mind.
Over the years, many of my articles have been re-published in other Citroën Clubs' magazines and newsletters as far afield as the USA and Australia.
In the five or so years that I have been writing the column, Joe has only declined to publish two articles and in both cases, with the benefit of hindsight, I agree that they would have served little purpose other than to unnecessarily provoke Citroën UK Ltd. and the Standing Committee of the Club - in the latter case, it was felt that Iconoclast was not the right arena to put across the points I wished to make. 
The e-mail Lists have proven to be a very fertile field for testing ideas and, it must be said, for providing inspiration when suffering from writer's block. It isn't always easy being provocative.. The Lists have been invaluable for confirming that I have got my facts right - or wrong as the case may be.
For the best part of two years while writing this column, I was not driving a Citroën - I had a Vauxhall Cavalier (Opel Ascona) 2.0 16v and then a Peugeot 405 GTD as company cars and it is true - absence does make the heart grow fonder. This hiatus in Citroën driving was not complete - my wife Christina occasionally let me drive her BX - and it actually proved quite useful inasmuch as it provided a degree of objectivity.

Finally, I must emphasise that the sentiments expressed in these essays are my personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of the Citroën Car Club.