For a Yellow Jersey narrates the many remarkable lives of the women's Tour de France. A race which has, in its various incarnations, acted as a microcosm of the women's bike racing scene as a whole. Like the careers of many of its participants, the race itself represents an inspiring story of survival against the odds and in the harshest possible conditions.Paul Maunder tells this chequered story which dates back to 1955 and features false starts, media indifference and fi...

'Maunder's book is more than just a biography of the rise and fall of a complicated man . . . It is also a critique of the damage that myth-making and the media can do to an athlete; a study of what happens to a demigod when thrown from Mount Olympus' The TimesCharly Gaul is a forgotten cycling legend. Once a household name across Europe, the diminutive Luxembourger won the 1958 Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia twice. A unique rider, Gaul was supremely...

When the images from Gaza become unbearable, Mike Garvey—West Coast sculptor, neighbour, ordinary man—decides that outrage is no longer enough.From a pup tent in Greymouth’s civic square, Garvey begins a hunger strike that will carry him far beyond the edges of his small town, and ultimately beyond New Zealand itself. What begins as a solitary act of protest becomes a journey shaped by chance encounters, uneasy solidarities, and the growing awareness that the body itself may be the...

For a Yellow Jersey narrates the many remarkable lives of the women's Tour de France. A race which has, in its various incarnations, acted as a microcosm of the women's bike racing scene as a whole. Like the careers of many of its participants, the race itself represents an inspiring story of survival against the odds and in the harshest possible conditions.Paul Maunder tells this chequered story which dates back to 1955 and features false starts, media indifference and fi...

A GOTHIC STORY OF MADNESS, REVENGE AND URANIUM-235 Midsummer, 1968. When Frank Banner and his wife Gail move to the Suffolk coast to work at a newly built nuclear power station, they are hoping to leave violence and pain behind them. Gail wants a baby but Frank is only concerned with spending time in the gleaming reactor core of the Seton One power station. Their new neighbours are also 'Atomics' – part of the power station community. But Frank takes a dislike to the boorish, predatory May...

'Maunder's book is more than just a biography of the rise and fall of a complicated man . . . It is also a critique of the damage that myth-making and the media can do to an athlete; a study of what happens to a demigod when thrown from Mount Olympus' The TimesCharly Gaul is a forgotten cycling legend. Once a household name across Europe, the diminutive Luxembourger won the 1958 Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia twice. A unique rider, Gaul was supremely...

In New Zealand in 1861, land wars between the native people, the Maori and the English settlers began. In the province of Taranaki where the novella is set, the first bout of fighting has led to the settlers moving into town. The government mail ship, sailing to the town, runs aground and the passengers rescued by the local Maori. One of these passengers is a French nun of the Sisters of Mercy, recently arrived and now joining a nunnery in Auckland. Sister Antoinette has had a difficult pa...

Big End is a coming of age novella set in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis. Eric, accompanied by a recording of Bill Haley and the Comets, is assembling the reconditioned engine of his Ford 10 prior to leaving the provincial New Zealand town of his upbringing and moving to the city to begin university. His girl friend arrives to tell him of the missile crisis. Sarah is a theatrical girl about to move to London to study acting. They are deeply in love but the relationship has not been ...

Out of Here is the third part of a trilogy called Moments in Time. It is a 'working class' romance set on the remote West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Phill's come home from a failed marriage to an Australian to tend to his dying mother and is working in the freezing works. Rylee has had to care for her father and younger brother since her mother died. She's working as a checkout operator for a local importer of Chinese goods. They meet at the pub and hit it off - they both know ab...

A novel from New Zealand. Eighty year old Malcolm's middle aged son, a college principal, is in trouble for hitting and supposedly molesting a student at his school, and his career potentially in ruins. His Maori partner, Piripi is worried about him. Malcolm bikes to see him and on the way records the story of his encounter with his birth father as a young man, for he intuitively feels that whakapapa (genealogy) will be the only cure for this situation. His father, Buddy had run off after ...

In this deeply personal and lyrical exploration of what it means to ride a bicycle, Paul Maunder explores how our memories have a dialogue with landscape and how cycling and creativity are connected.Taking a journey through the places that have shaped him, we ride across wild moorland, through suburbia and city streets, into quintessentially English pastoral scenes. We see too some of the darker parts of the British countryside, sites of great secrecy that intrigue...

Cyclocross is no longer cycling's hidden gem.Its rapid growth in the USA and UK means this intense and dramatic sport is exploding into the mainstream. With a season running from September to February, cyclocross is cycling's only purely winter discipline, demanding a combination of athleticism, supreme technical skill and ruthless tactics for the muddy conditions.In the sport's heartland of Belgium, major races attract crowds of thousands and have a carniv...