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A novelist and retired parson has mocked the ‘irony’ of slow traffic outside Goodwood’s festival of speed in an acerbic tweet.

Reverend Richard Coles, whose latest novel Murder Before Evensong was released earlier this month, tweeted that he was stuck in traffic outside Goodwood’s Festival of Speed earlier today (June 23), with the hashtag ‘irony’ and a picture of queuing cars.

The joke prompted a number of witty replies, including ‘would wishing you God speed be too terrible a pun?’ from Twitter user Anita_Cronosoft.‘There is no such thing as a terrible pun in my book,’ the Reverend replied.

Mr Coles is due to discuss his life and newest novel in a talk at Chichester Cathedral tonight. Set for 7.30pm, there’s no doubt he’s hoping the traffic speeds up before then.

But, with heavy traffic on all the surrounding roads, that may not be likely.

Delays of up to 18 minutes have been reported between the Chichester Bypass and the Bognor Bridge roundabout, and similarly lengthy delays have been reported up to Portfield Way thanks to traffic leaving the Festival of Speed itself.

It’s thought that traffic problems have been exacerbated by industrial action on southern railway services, leading to severe delays and numerous cancellations across the network.

click here to see the original tweet.

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Author mocks 'irony' of slow traffic outside Goodwood's Festival of Speed