Who loves a book giveaway? I know I do, especially when I’m the lucky recipient. As a reviewer, I love the thrill of opening a parcel to see which books I have been sent … it’s even more exciting when I win a book. Now, it’s my turn to run a giveaway.
This week Bloomsbury has sent me a review copy of A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson – and the publisher has kindly offered me two copies to give away. Who wants one? All you have to do is leave a comment below with your funniest cycling story. And just so you aren’t the only ones feeling like this could be a tad embarrassing, here’s mine (it’s about a “friend”, of course) …
Back in the dark ages, when my friend was 15, she rode her bicycle to the shops on an errand for her mother. Up ahead there were some boys of a similar age and she was gripped with a sudden desire to ride past them with her hair waving in the wind (it was like a “the boys watch the girls while the girls watch the boys who watch the girls go by” moment). Inexplicably, for this friend was rather shy around boys, she stood up on the bike, apparently to make it easier to go up the slight incline, but really so the boys would notice her pert behind. Stupid girl, I know. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant pothole appeared in the road and my friend, who was watching the boys watch her, rode straight into it and fell off her bicycle, resulting in a rather nasty piece of gravel rash. And a large scab on her knee that lasted several weeks. The moral: walking is slower, but sometimes safer (or pride comes before a fall). Unless you are like this friend who was also known to walk into a pole because she was reading while walking. But that’s another story.
Your turn – can you match this? You can tell one about a “friend” of course! Here’s the blurb for A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar:
It is 1923 and Evangeline English, keen lady cyclist, arrives with hersister Lizzie at the ancient Silk Route city of Kashgar to help establish a
Christian mission. Lizzie is in thrall to their forceful and unyielding leader
Millicent, but Eva’s motivations for leaving her bourgeois life back at
home are less clear-cut. As they attempt to navigate their new home and
are met with resistance and calamity, Eva commences work on her book, A
Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar…
In present-day London another story is beginning. Frieda, a young
woman adrift in her own life, opens her front door one night to find a man
sleeping on the landing. In the morning he is gone, leaving on the wall an
exquisite drawing of a long-tailed bird and a line of Arabic script. Tayeb,
who has fled to England from Yemen, has arrived on Frieda’s doorstep just as
she learns that she is the next-of-kin to a dead woman she has never heard of: a
woman whose abandoned flat contains many surprises – among them an ill-
tempered owl.
The two wanderers begin an unlikely friendship as their worlds collide, and
they embark on a journey that is as great, and as unexpected, as Eva’s.
Good luck! Bloomsbury is also running a competition with a retro style bike and a copy of the book to give away if you want to double your chances – enter here.
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0 Responses
It can't be so…surely I am not the klutziest bike rider in Australia. Say it isn't so!
When I was a teenager, my friend and I rode our bikes to school, and due to excessive dawdling, were often late. We had to sign in at the front office and found it hugely amusing to write… creative excuses for our tardiness. Abduction by aliens, getting lost and getting caught in hail storms (during the height of summer) were some of our more 'hilarious' excuses. One day, while dawdling, swerving and singing, my bike handlebars got caught in the bridge. The bike stopped. But I kept going… landing on my face. Result: one very chipped front tooth. I had to go, shamefaced, to the front office and ask the school secretary (who wasn't my biggest fan) to call my mother. Mum naturally was thrilled to receive the phonecall telling her about my expensive dental predicament. Moral of the story? Don't swerve and sing while riding your bike over a bridge.
Can you put me in the draw for a copy please:)xxx
Congratulations Deborah and Karen, you have each won a copy. I will be in touch to arrange delivery. PS. Deb, the moral could also be: Fib and you will be found out.