Book Review
CYCLOGEOGRAPHY: JOURNEYS OF A LONDON BICYCLE COUREIR – Jon Day, Notting Hill Editions Ltd., 2015
“MY BICYCLE had bled into my being, infecting me with its surfaces of leather and steel. Its CROMIUM FORKS thrummed in sympathy with MY HEART RATE. I began to feel better on the bike than off it.’ With this, I was off into the world of bicycle couriering in London, England…”
Jon Day authors this fascinating look into the life of bicycle couriering and ‘the Knowledge’ of this great city that he believes only the bicycle courier can fully experience.
Literary, personal, detailed, and insightful. I’ve often wondered about the couriers I’ve seen or used to see more often in Vancouver – the life, the seemingly dangerous but dashing, important yet menial, glamorous but dodgy. Jon covers the bases eloquently. From late night London courier ‘ally cat’ races to the Cycle Messenger World Championship in Poland we get a glipse of the gritty and painful work of riding all day, in all weather, with poor pay and marginal working conditions to country bicycle rides becoming grand works of art. There are interesting insights into the great races and legendary climbs of the Tour de France to works reflecting on perambulations (of the cycle variety) which help define the relationship of the bicycle to the human form in works such as the French playwright Alfred Jarry’s short story, ‘The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race’. If you’re looking for a fascinating literary ride into the world of the bicycle and perhaps what riding one means to you – its worth a go.
=Clyde Scollan - BCCC Board Member