What Goes Around: A London Cycle Courier's Story By Emily Chappell Kindle Edition 1783350555 9781783350551 What Goes Around: A London Cycle Couriers Story Emily Chappell was never meant to be a cycle courier. She planned to earn her living using her mind rather than her legs. She thought itd be a useful stopgap while searching for a real job. Today, six years on, shes still pedalling. Its my most enduring love affair; the career thats shaped my life, made me what I am, and entirely derailed any hope of a normal existence. As she flies through the streets of the capital, dancing with the traffic, Chappell records the pain and pleasure both mental and physical of life on the hurtling, dangerous missions; the ebb and flow of seasonal work; the moments of fear and freedom, anger and exhaustion; the camaraderie of the courier tribe and its idiosyncratic characters; the conflict and harmony between bicycle and road, body and mind. At the same time it is a hymn to London; its changing skyline, its chaos and the unlikeliest street corners will have some tattered threads of memory fluttering from them like a flagIts almost as if the memories have overflowed from my head and scattered themselves about the city. Some parts of my life I can recall simply by thinking of them; others I think Id remember better if I went back to a certain part of London and plucked them up from the tree Id hung them from, or retraced them from the park bench Id scratched them on, or snatched them up as they blew around in circles in an alleyway like a discarded carrier bag. This is a book about discovery and belonging, connection and memory, choosing lifes uncharted course and the delicious sensation of just riding.

To the heat of Summer And of course the vagaries and at times vitriolic behaviour of other road users is undeniable It is a profession that is unseen by most of us and one whose companion is constant solitude The life of a cycle courier is certainly not for the faint hearted At first I wasn t altogether sure that this was a memoir for me The wheels seem to turn relatively slowly in the early part It was a solid well written and at times a didactic read about the nature of bikes and cycling who favours a freewheel as opposed to a fixed gear A Salsa Cyclocross or Surly Steamroller didn t mean anything to me. But soon the speed picked up and I found myself rooting for this young woman.

If you have any kind of relationship with London I think you ll enjoy this book If you ride a bike I think you ll enjoy this book If you like books in which someone takes you into a world you don t normally inhabit I think you ll enjoy this book And at the risk of clich if you re interested in a dyke s perspective on a world most commonly associated with men I think you ll enjoy this book Also the writing is fantastic 1783350555 A good insight into the world of cycle couriers I ride regularly in London and could relate to a lot of her descriptions on the city and its streets Mostly a good 4 star read which drops a star as for some reason I became a little disengaged with it about 3 4 of the way through 1783350555 This review first appeared on our blog where we also chat to the author of a cycle courier set in London swerve brake or die Ever wondered what it is like to be a cycle courier in London And a female one at that Emily gives up her predetermined life in academia to work initially as one of two females in a courier company in the capital As anyone can imagine it is a hard job through all the seasons from the biting winds and rain of the Winter months through the irritations of plane tree pollen in Spring whose vulnerability and self effacing demeanour belied the steely exterior of a typical cycle courier who might cover 1000 miles a week. I really warmed to the writer when she chose novels to read in the periods when she had no packages to deliver In terms of TripFiction I was delighted to find that she chose several London set books including Iris Murdoch s Under the Net Descriptions of the Holborn Viaduct contained in that book enabled her to look afresh at this area of London where the city folds in half with the River Fleet running far below In addition Alan Hollinghurst s The Swimming Pool Library inspired her to search for Lord Nantwich s house and finally Sebastian Faulks gets short shrift in his novel A Week in December a novel that attempts to represent London s bustle and diversity by amassing a disparate and thinly drawn cast just about their only uniting feature being that they are all at one point or another set upon by a speeding cyclist Indeed there are plenty of people in the city who rail against the cycle courier for well no real reasonother than the cyclists are vulnerable targets i. e not encased in a car ubiquitous are perceived to get in the way and thus easy prey to vent spleen Much of the writing is actually about the author s inner self someone who struggles with quite some self doubt When she first meets one of her partner s old friends and lovers difficult of course she worried herself into the ground that she would be judged and found wanting And of course being in a male dominated community has its own difficulties. It was good to see the anecdotes of life on two wheels start to build up including a delivery to Downing Street and a missing package luckily not one of Emily s deliveries worth 10 million Driving past the Broadwick Street Pump she spots tour guides informing and misinforming the London visitor about how Dr John Snow traced cholera to this exact pump in 1854 And indeed there are the Cycle Messenger World Championships who knew London is brought to life in the author s capable hands and a potentially overwhelming city becomes manageable through familiarity Places and spaces change with knowledge They shrink and become habitable and negotiable Emily certainly conveys this in this memoir The strange and seductive satisfaction of courieuring that Emily describes means that I will observe these streaking human dynamos in a new light 1783350555 Like all personal memoirs this book is best approached with the fewest possible expectations for it is primarily about the author s inner life rather than its advertised subject of cycle couriering which though skilfully depicted often serves only as a backdrop In that sense What Goes Around is a resounding success Hinting at the events that precede and succeed these years of cycle couriering in enough detail to frame her story but without becoming laborious this retrospective and pleasantly nostalgic account of what was clearly a defining chapter of the author s life is enjoyable and revelatory Her acute self awareness perceptive eye and talented hand combine to give the reader not just an insight into the courier scene past and present and the daily battles fought against the various currents of London life but also the way in which a self confessed social misfit finds herself an unlikely sense of belonging in the transient yet tightly knit community to which she generously provides her reader access I m sure I won t be the only one finishing this book in anticipation of a follow up perhaps telling the tale of that little ride to Tokyo 1783350555 The cool thing about this memoir is that it s not the usual millennial moan about how anxious and depressed the writer was until they started X as a hobby and it changed their life Emily Chapelle comes across as a funny intelligent thoughtful observant shy but determined person who s written a book about being a courier If you re interested in that you can read it if not don t bother Chapelle and the reader does go on a journey but it s to the City from Shoreditch to the west end to Southwark and back again from her first day to her last on the courier circuit The book is not ordered into topics e. g Bike Maintenance Winter Clothing Nutrition On The Go but is instead a trip from A Z with anecdotes thrown in here and there the day the office that was on the site of what became the Shard closed down the day she discovers Inner Temple the morning she delivers to Downing Street the afternoon she tries to drop off a cease and desist letter to Dreawmworks from Julian Assange who still owes her a tenner as well as personal stuff such as splitting up with her girlfriend two couriers falling out closing down the flirtations of security guards starting up the flirtations of a female firefighter and gossipy titbits about various cycle courier companies the couriers themselves the controllers the receptionists including which one has the best sweets the loading bays of London and the best courier pubs and cafes some still here some gone the way of the Foundry RIP 1783350555 Emily Chappell is a freelance illustrator artist and silkscreen printer based in Glasgow Scotland. Emily Chappell was never meant to be a cycle courier She planned to earn her living using her mind rather than her legs She thought it d be a useful stopgap while searching for a real job Today six years on she s still pedalling It s my most enduring love affair the career that s shaped my life made me what I am and entirely derailed any hope of a normal existence As she flies through the streets of the capital dancing with the traffic Chappell records the pain and pleasure both mental and physical of life on the hurtling dangerous missions the ebb and flow of seasonal work the moments of fear and freedom anger and exhaustion the camaraderie of the courier tribe and its idiosyncratic characters the conflict and harmony between bicycle and road body and mind At the same time it is a hymn to London its changing skyline its chaos and the unlikeliest street corners will have some tattered threads of memory fluttering from them like a flagIt s almost as if the memories have overflowed from my head and scattered themselves about the city Some parts of my life I can recall simply by thinking of them others I think I d remember better if I went back to a certain part of London and plucked them up from the tree I d hung them from or retraced them from the park bench I d scratched them on or snatched them up as they blew around in circles in an alleyway like a discarded carrier bag This is a book about discovery and belonging connection and memory choosing life s uncharted course and the delicious sensation of just riding What Goes Around A London Cycle Courier s StoryIn no way did this book make me want to give up my job and become a cycle courier as seems to happen for a number of people in Emily s story But it did give me a new appreciation of what goes on in London day in day out that you just don t notice unless you really look I m going to be trying to spot cycle couriers from now on Entertaining book 1783350555 In manchen Bewertungen hier wird beklagt dass das Buch ein bisschen zu lang und zu unstrukturiert ist Mich hat das berhaupt nicht gest rt in diesem Stil bin ich bereit beliebig viel ber beliebige Themen zu lesen 1783350555 Emily Chappell paints a fabulous picture of the mythology of the life of a cycle courier in London Starting the job herself in part because she was seduced by the idea of cool couriers flying around town their freedom the outdoor lifestyle the camaraderie the social life the counter culture community Instead she finds out that the reality is both nothing as she imagined and everything she had imagined The camaraderie the outdoor lifestyle and the freedom are all there but it s also frequently wet and cold involves long periods of sitting around waiting for the next job verbal assault physical assault and even when there is work the pay is so small that couriers frequently have to decide if they can really afford that coffee between jobs. Yet none of this seems to extinguish her obvious and infectious love for the choice she has made the lifestyle her colleagues and most of all her love of London itself For while this is a tale of a cycle courier s life it is as much the tale of her love of cycling her love of the city the psychogeography of London itself The quiet backstreets the postcodes the shortcuts the glimpsed colleagues the loading bays the receptionists and security guards the hidden parks and the pubs and caf s This love manages to stay steady and unflinching throughout the whole tale only at the very end in the last chapter is there a downturn an unexpected undercurrent of negativity has the courier life finally got too much for Emily So easily cycling autobiographies can be too utilitarian Victoria Pendleton s story is fascinating but the prose is lacklustre even a little whiny in places but like The Rider draws you into its story of the unrelenting obsession of cycle racing What Goes Around draws you into Emily Chappell s story of the unashamed joy of just cycling round London and while it would be the craziest idea in the world reading Emily s story makes me wish I had been a cycle courier too 1783350555 I remember reading Emily Chappell s blog about being a bike courier in London and enjoying it so was obviously inclined to read the book version too She s a visceral evocative writer who conveys both the romantic appeal and serious practical drawbacks to the job I ve never been a bike courier and am far too lazy for such an active job but her writing made me nostalgic for my cycle commute back in Cambridge What Goes Around was a fast fun diverting read that balances courier cultural history with personal memoir I particularly liked her lucid analysis of pedestrian and driver rage against cyclists which I observed plenty of times as a bike commuter and the amusing anecdote about Julian Assange The appeal of living and working in London remains a mystery to me though I did it part time for a few months and that was than enough London traffic is terrifying and Chappell certainly does not play that down I wonder how the courier experience has changed in the past few years with the sudden growth in bike delivery of takeaways by Uber Eats et al 1783350555 Could relate to so many things Being in an abusive relationship with the city one s cycling in and not having on your mind where you re going but in your body 1783350555

What Goes Around: A London Cycle Courier's Story By Emily Chappell

1783350555

9781783350551

English

320

Kindle Edition

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