This is the first issue of the Bicycle Reader, a new collection of quality writing about cycling. Two thoughts inspired us to start this collection.The first is that there is a great deal of brilliant article and essay-length writing about cycling that remains inaccessible to most readers. Some of it languishes out of print. Other pieces appeared in publications read by only a tiny minority of cyclists.The second is that eBook readers are the natural companion of cyclists. ...

Awaking to a warm morning in the forest, Turnip and Brie are two hungry cubs who venture out of their snug cave in search of the fruits of summer. This story of independence and neighborly care merges beautifully with captivating illustrations to depict the delight that comes from discovering new places while finding companionship and community. Join these two cubs on an adventurous romp through the woods as they stumble upon a secret garden and make connections both old and new. For more ...

Thirteen plays about human connection, from some of BBC Radio's best writers exploring love, family, romances and life's ups and downsThis diverse collection of stories centres around family dynamics, relationships both romantic and platonic, and the diverse ways ordinary people navigate the vicissitudes of everyday life.Ranging from modern fairy tales to coming-of-age dramas, they feature a wide variety of styles, and are scripted by an array of writers fr...

Kindle bestseller in US TravelThe Great Divide is America's premier long distance mountain bike route. It is the longest unbroken mountain bike route in the world and was included in National Geographic's list of the 50 most amazing places on earth. The route makes its way 2500 miles from Canada to Mexico as it crisscrosses the Continental Divide.Metcalfe and his riding buddy JK are mountain bikers, and Dividing the Great is the hilarious account of their journey as they at...

Cycling the End to End is so much more than just sitting on something no bigger than, and as hard as, the sole plate of an iron and pedalling, as Julia was to discover. Every experience seemed to be about extremes: Cornish hills, Cheshire plains, busy Devon lanes, empty highland roads, downpours, droughts, smooth cycle tracks, hazardous cattle grids, psychedelic B&Bs and homely hostels. And when the terrain and the weather weren’t against her the wildlife was: terrorising Labradors, format...

This true and very funny story involving six colleagues, some retired, proves the saying that we never really grow up - we just learn how to behave in public.On a sudden whim six men, mostly writers, decided to embark on a 1 000 kilometre cycle ride down the River Danube believing it would be downhill all the way. This was the first of many assumptions that proved to be not terribly correct.None had cycled since childhood nor even owned a bike.That first hilarious journey o...

Two women, two bikes, no backup on a Sea to Sea adventure.At the beginning of the twenty-first century two friends set off to cycle from coast to coast across England. For one, it was to be the first of many long distance cycle rides.Cycling Across England is an account of the fun, the food, the mountains, the moorlands and the mathematics the two friends encountered along the way. From the Irish Sea, through the mountains of Cumbria and the Pennine uplands they travelled thr...

Spring 1993. 14 months earlier the USSR had collapsed and with Russia accessible once more Gregory Yeoman and his expedition companions set off on their bicycles to ride from the Baltic to the Pacific. Over 153 days they encountered wild landscapes, wild people, crumbling hotels and Siberia's two cheeses on an extraordinary adventure through a nation finding itself after 70 years of Communism.'Riding into the Sunrise' is the story of the first cycling expedition to cross the new po...

Ned Boulting has noticed something. It's to do with bikes. They're everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'.In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. Ned's search puts him in contact with some of the wonderful and wonderfully idiosyncratic people who have co...

Cycling was a sport so important in Italy that it marked a generation, sparked fears of civil war, changed the way Italian was spoken, led to legal reform and even prompted the Pope himself to praise a cyclist, by name, from his balcony in St Peters in Rome. It was a sport so popular that it created the geography of Italy in the minds of her citizens, and some have said that it was cycling, not political change, that united Italy.Pedalare, Pedalare! is the first complete h...

That strangest of traveller, the lone female, is at it again. This time cycling through the heart of England from Bath to London to her home in Lancashire. For such a small country England was proving to be a land of contrasts and surprises; from the leafy lanes of Berkshire to the bleak moorlands of the north, spectacular scenery and post-industrial mill towns, dead divas and murderous mad men.Throughout the six hundred mile cycle ride there was much that was quintessentially Engli...

Remember when you were a kid and you got your first bicycle? After a few weeks of mastering the dynamics of balancing, steering, and pedaling, all at the same time hopefully, your father released his protective, steadying grip on the seat and you went wobbling off on your own. It was probably your very first taste of independence and freedom and you knew you liked that feeling very much. Few things in life have ever compared to that first solo ride.Almost 40 years after my first so...