Product Description

Josie Dew's love of cycling has taken her across the world, travelling everywhere from Japan and Mexico to Iceland, India and Algeria. In her latest book, she sets off on another quirky and riotous ride, choosing to circumnavigate the coastline of the British Isles. And she discovers that her homeland can be as surprising and full of incident as anywhere she has ever been. Beginning in Portsmouth, Josie sets off in a clockwise direction after a Shetland grandmother warns her that she'll end up meeting the devil if she travels anti-clockwise. Through rain, hail, floods, bitter temperatures, minor earthquakes and dusty drought, Josie pedals on, eventually returning to Land's End to complete Stage One of her remarkably lengthy odyssey along 5,000 miles of seaside, estuaries, creeks and islands. But is all as it seems? Who is the mysterious builder who appears at all the wrong moments? Who are the two-wheeled taggers-on lurking in her wake? What did she find at Puckpool Point, Bozomzeal and Woon Gumpus? And how did Josie so badly miscalculate her approach to the seafront at Newhaven that she landed in France?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84572 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 505 pages

Review
'Dew excels at recreating and evoking the quaint and sometimes bizarre idiosyncratic behaviour and events she encounters' - ADVENTURE TRAVEL 'Josie Dew needs little introduction...her writing is chattery and matter of fact' - CYCLING PLUS

About the Author
Josie has cycled 280,000 miles across 43 countries, some by accident. The survivor of 5 continents, several wonky knees & a handful of worn-out bottom brackets, she is still firmly fixed in the saddle. WIND IN MY WHEELS was shortlisted for the 1992 Travel Writer of the Year Award.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing read
I eagerly awaited this book, having all Josie Dew's previous cycling books. However, I was disappointed from reading this book to find that Josie does not actually appear to enjoy meeting or cycling with her reading public. To justify a rapid exit from the various people she meets on the grounds that they might turn out to be a mass murderer is simply ridiculous. What a shame she feels this way, given she has inspired so many people to take up long distance cycle touring, myself included. If I ever do see her I shall make a point of not recognising her or wanting to ride alongside!

This book is a bit jaded and repetitive and doesn't have the sparkle of her earlier books. Sounds like Josie needs a long rest from the saddle.

Disappointing
Having read Wind in my Wheels I was really looking forward to a home based book which just might inspire me to 'get on my bike'.
Unfortunately there was little in the book to inspire. Josie has tried too hard to make a basically unexciting ride around England & Wales seem exciting and funny by padding it out with her vivid, but rather silly, imagination (read about the 'terrorist's bag left on the pavement in the Isle of Wight to see what I mean.) In a further attempt to make the ordinary interesting she gives the impression that Britain is populated by people who are either weird, unpleasant or talk too much.
My advice is don't waste your money or your precious reading time. For real richness in travel literature try Dervla Murphy -superb!!

No Coasting
I found this a very disappointing book.The author seemed to be pre-occupied with other matters, and spending time avoiding her fans and other members of the male fraternity.The book seemed more and more an effort.I didn't enjoy this book at all and would suggest that Josie concentrated in her cycling rather than her writing if this was anything to go by.Its the first of the authors books I have read,so perhaps I am being too critical,but I think it deserved more.