"You can keep the internet. You can keep the computer and the mobile phone. In the bicycle humanity has its most perfect invention of the last three hundred years and in Bella Bathurst the bike has found the best and brightest booster so far." BORIS JOHNSON

'At last - a bicycle book for the rest of us.... A book for the sort of cyclist who likes cycling and reading and stories.' Guardian

Two wheels. A frame. Two pedals. What could be simpler than a bicycle?

And yet the bike continues to inspire a passionate following. Since the millennium its use in Britain has doubled, and then doubled again. Thousands now cycle to work, with more and more taking it up every day.

Acclaimed author Bella Bathurst takes us on a journey through cycling's best stories and strangest incarnations, from the bicycle as a weapon of warfare to the secret life of couriers and the alchemy of framebuilding. With a cast of characters including the woman who watercycled across the Channel, the man who raced India's Deccan Queen train and several of today's top cyclists, she offers us a brilliantly engaging portrait of cycling's past, present and world-conquering future.