Matsuo Bashō was a 17th Century Japanese poet considered to be a master of the haiku, a traditional form of poem written in three sections of five, seven and five syllables. In his comprehensive introduction translator Yuasa traces the history … Continue reading →
Riding the very terrible 1914 Tour of Italy This is the fourth of Tim Moore’s books that I’ve read, and the ninth he has published. My reading is definitely non-sequential though: I read ‘French Revolutions‘, his third, in 2002; his … Continue reading →
Across the USA in a Ford Model T Tim Moore is a travel writer who specialises in coming up with daft ideas, doing them, and then writing about them. Never having driven one before, his daft idea for 2018 was … Continue reading →
Emma John trained as a classical violinist but abandoned any plans for a music career in her twenties when she realised she wasn’t quite good enough to play at the very highest level. She became a journalist and sports writer … Continue reading →
It’s sixteen years since I read and reviewed Tim Moore’s “French Revolutions“, his first cycling book. Since then he’s written several other books including one about the notorious 1914 Giro d’Italia, “Gironimo”, in which he rides a vintage bike around … Continue reading →
When I reviewed Andrew Sykes’ previous book “Along the Med on a Bike Called Reggie” I said I felt it lacked the discipline of a publisher’s editor. I’m delighted to say that for this, his latest book, Sykes has found … Continue reading →
An account of a cycle ride across China. Hugely disappointing; badly written and with all the faults of an unedited self-published book. A missed opportunity.
Continue reading →This review puts me in a dilemma. How honest should I be? Let me explain. I first came across Andrew P Sykes in the summer of 2015 while he was blogging his bike ride from Tarifa, at the southern tip … Continue reading →
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California and grew up near the Pacific coast where many of his earlier successful novels and stories are based. He later moved to New York and by 1960 had been living there for some … Continue reading →
Fourteen years after her excellent book on Antarctica, Terra Incognita, Sara Wheeler is back among the ice floes, but this time at the other end of the Earth’s axis, the Arctic. The world has changed in that time. She now … Continue reading →