Unburdened: A London Cycle Courier's Story [Lingua Inglese] - Brossura

Chappell, Emily

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1783350539 ISBN 13: 9781783350537

Casa editrice: Faber And Faber Ltd., 2016

Riassunto

Emily Chappell 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 wheels: 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 interconnectedness: 'the unlikeliest street corners will have some tattered threads of memory fluttering from them like a flag...It'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.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This memoir of a cycle courier and her love affair with the capital delivers the goods in style...Chappell is a gifted storyteller. She deftly weaves in a plotted history of couriering, from the explosion of the industry in the late 1980s...through to its gentle decline at the hand of email attachments, file sharing and electronic signatures...In and out of all this, fine words flow on the simple but profound pleasure of floating through the city on a bicycle - of the "strange sense of stillness", and "the energy of sheer motion itself. (Robert Penn Observer)

Fascinating for offering a ­female courier's memoir of a predominantly male culture. (New Statesman)

With remarkably intricate and evocative detail, Chappell takes us through her journey from wide-eyed new girl to hardened veteran. She combines fascinating insight into the job with raw personal experience and passion. It feels a privilege to be allowed in. The book's heartfelt odes to cycling mean you don't have to be at all interested in actual courier work to find this absorbing. In fact, it's so well written that you probably don't even need to like bicycles to be entertained and engaged. (Urban Cyclist)

[A] collection of anecdotes and memories that is part personal history, part portrait of the city. Chappell is a marvellous writer, and the book reads rather like a bike ride with its succession of turns and unexpected discoveries ... The joy of cycling is at its heart, however; if any book could make you consider chucking in your desk job and throwing on some Lycra, this could be it. (DIVA)

Descrizione del libro:

A beautiful new view of the city from a talented new writer and cycle courier.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Faber And Faber Ltd.
• Data di pubblicazione: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1783350539
• ISBN 13: 9781783350537
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 309