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the bicycle book by bella bathurst. harper press. 306pp illus. hardback. £16.99
if i might indulge your patience and lingusitic skills for a moment or two, perhaps you'd be so good as to read the following;
o wad some power the giftie gie us
tae see oorsels as ithers see us!
it wid frae monie a blunder free us,
an' foolish notion
the first four lines from the last verse of 'to a louse' by robert burns. it's written in a dialect simply known as scots, one that is in even less contemporary use than that of gaelic, though you might be forgiven for thinking so in some of the more arcane depths of glasgow and its surrounds.
prior to moving to this island paradise, i lived only a few miles away from burns' cottage in alloway, ayrshire, a cute little whitewashed, thatched affair that still draws a considerable number of visitors each year to the home of the man often referred to as the nation's bard. based almost entirely on this geographical proximity, many an english lesson at school (i hope nobody has missed the irony in that) was spent dissecting burns' copious output, in particular, the epic 'tam o' shanter'. if it is any consolation to those in foreign parts reading the above, at that age few of us understood much of it either.
i have no great love of poetry from wherever it hails, having been put off while a school due to the endless deconstruction of each line and, in some cases, choice of word. for that reason alone, i have no intention of disinterring the above, but i am particularly interested in the first two lines which are fairly easily translated as having the power to see ourselves the way others do. for regularly are we so self-absorbed with carbon frames, alloy components, tyre treads, spoke lengths and quality of lycra, that it never dawns that those not inducted into our strange little world, might not quite see everything as so amazingly important.
that's just one of the reasons why folks point and snigger when you ride past wearing that delectable polti jersey.
the entire world of cycling becomes almost self-referencing, when you consider that pretty much everything we read is prepared for our consumption by those inhabiting the very same world as ourselves. it can, therefore, be a trifle difficult to take a step back tae see oorsels as ithers see us. that too becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy when you consider that few outside this world would be likely to either pen something for one of the monthlies or, indeed, approach a major publisher with a pitch for a book about cycling. a bit like me writing something about football.
but, believe it or not, that's pretty much what the exotically named bella bathurst has done.
ms bathurst is portrayed on the rear inner flap of her book the bicycle book as a writer and photographer, having previously published a book shortlisted for the guardian first book award about the lighthouse stevensons: the extraordinary story of the building of the scottish lighthouses by robert louis stevenson's ancestors. this also won the somerset maugham prize. however, bella does not confine herself to fact, having produced two works of fiction; special and more recently the wreckers. impressive credentials, so what prompted over 300 pages about the bicycle?
rather provocatively, in her introduction, ms bathurst states 'i started writing this book because i wanted to read something good about cycling and bikes, and there didn't seem to be that much around'...'there wasn't anything for the sort of cyclist who liked cycling, and reading, and stories, and who had long ago given up any desire to experiment with exogenous epo'
in point of fact, those few words in a book of thousands, tell more about the author's acquaintance with the world of the bicycle, and leads one to consider whether this really is a book from the outside looking in, as it perhaps purports to be. for at this point we are not yet into the guts of chapter one (where bella joins dave yates' framebuilding course), yet epo has already reared its ugly head. is it not possible that the casual cyclist might just have choked on the word exegenous before wondering just what the heck epo is?
this is, i must admit, a particularly disingenuous criticism on my part and perhaps a rather smart step on the author's part. for though there may well be those willing to investigate the pages of this attractively covered book on the basis of ms bathurst's previously published work, i think it likely that a majority of purchasers/readers will already have some affiliation or affection for the bicycle. those who simply employ velocipedinal services for their transport needs are unlikely to want to invest in a book that blatantly refrains from explaining how to adjust index gearing, or repair a puncture.
so now we have a quandary; who exactly is this book aimed at?
to be blunt, it's aimed at you and i, for we are the very people who will happily read from cover to cover without any degree of undue persuasion. the contents were a complete surprise to me, for i had visions of narrative alluding to sprightly pedalling in the country, aboard a duck egg blue pashley bicycle. what in fact inhabits these three hundred plus pages is a veritable cornucopia of devotional aspects of the bicycle world, yet seen with fresh eyes. richard moore and bill strickland would not have written a book in this manner, and while i greatly admire the works of the latter two authors, this is refreshingly different.
it seems a touch trite to even mention the literary abilities of bella bathurst, given her palmares recounted above.
aside from recounting the building of her first bicycle frame under the expert tutelage of dave yates, subsequent chapters visit the history of the bicycle, the bizarre water pedalling of zetta hills, the importance and social standing of the bicycle in both the netherlands and india, an interview with london cabbies, with some edinburgh cycle couriers, and worth the price of admission alone, a visit with graeme obree at his home in saltcoats, ayrshire (only a few miles further along the coast from burns' cottage). obree has rarely been a man to refrain from calling a spade a gardening implement 'basically training is so overrated, so overcomplicated in terms of what it is, because it's got to be complicated in order to sell books'. it is with no trace of irony that later in the chapter we are informed that obree is currently involved in writing a training manual for novices.
what makes this an eminently unmissable book is the eclecticism of its subject matter. much of the content can doubtless be garnered elsewhere with a bit of conscientious research, but i very much doubt you'll find any of it so well presented, and certainly not in such readable form. bella bathurst has a delightfully fluid style, one that never even hints at getting in the way of the subject. unless you are a consummate historian of the bicycle already, this book is an education in itself, though at no point does it alert you to such subversive intent. bella bathurst is, i'd venture to suggest, a touch more intrigued with the bicycle than her introduction would profess, and that this love affair runs a trifle deeper than 'i'm a cyclist because i reckon there is no lovelier form of transport.'
it wid frae monie a blunder free us,
an' foolish notion
foolish notions need not apply.
posted thursday 5 may 2011
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