[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/58449502[/vimeo]
On the 17th of June 2007 I cycled away from my parents’ front door on a mission to cycle the world.
I’d called my project ‘Ride Earth’. I was a cocky 23-year-old and I thought I knew it all. I could not have been more wrong.
I was right about one thing, at least: that it was the opening chapter of a monumental tale. It’s the tale that I’ve spent the last two years writing. And now — more than half a decade after those first tentative pedal strokes were made — it is ready to be published.
The final chapter is closing. And the story is ready to begin once more — in your imaginations. Many of you have been audience to snippets of this journey from Day One. It’s time to tell it in full.
Read ‘Janapar’, the paperback (or eBook) →
There is nothing important about this book; at the same time it contains everything I’ve lived for during my twenties. It’s the tale of a restless young man’s search for who-knows-what — a deeper meaning? A dream obscured by reality?
My younger self, as he burned his bridges and set sail from his little island in the north-east Atlantic, did not quite know. And one of his many mistakes was thinking that there’d be a neat ending to his tale.
I’ve gone to great pains to ensure that my first book is not a tiresome inner-monologue. One of the pleasures of writing it has been revisiting the colourful cast of characters into whose lives I arrived, whether for the duration of a conversation, or (in one case) for the rest of a lifetime.
It is through these realities — chance meetings and lifelong lessons, palpable struggles and indescribable delights — that this human story plays out. Reconstructing it has been an adventure all of its own.
And at the core of the book is one big and rather unexpected question. Would you give up your dream lifestyle for the one you love, or cycle off and risk missing out on the greatest adventure of all?
This dilemma inspires a bicycle journey across three continents, through parts of the world practically unvisited, right back to the birthplace of humanity in East Africa. And it’s a journey which ultimately spits me out here, today.
This book was driven by a burning need to write these experiences out; to make sense of them once and for all. But the end result is for you, the reader. You have inspired me to create something that allows you to live that same journey vicariously.
Because it’s launch week, it’s FREE DELIVERY to anywhere the UK, until midnight on Sunday 3rd Feb. No voucher code needed. (That goes for the book/DVD combo, too.)
The book of ‘Janapar’ is officially released today. Get it here →
I’ll always be glad to hear your thoughts and respond in person. You can contact me any time through this page.
P.S. Sample chapters are freely available to read, in PDF and for a variety of eReaders. Download them here.
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