A different sort of hero

In which I remember how much happens at the grass roots

Hello all,

I have some further thoughts on who we choose to commemorate as heroes this week, but before we plunge in, I have a couple of announcements.

A perk of European train travel - nipping up a hill for ice cream when you have a five-hour wait in Grenoble

Go and see Europe by train

There’s currently 25% off Interrail passes, and you have one more day to take advantage. If you thought Interrailing was only for stoned gap year students with huge backpacks then I urge you to think again. A four-day Interrail pass is the cheapest way to get to your beach holiday or city break without flying, and the whole process of travelling by train around Europe is a joy.

You have to pay €30 extra for a Eurostar reservation if you’re crossing the channel, but the pass also covers inward and outward travel in one’s home country – if you’re from the UK, this means that it will often have paid for itself by the time you reach London. There’s lots more information about how they work on Seat61.

An adult four-day pass currently costs €213 (around £177). I’ve bought three – two for trips I have coming up in January and March, and another one just in case. They’re valid for 11 months, and I’m sure I’ll find an excuse to go somewhere before next November.

(This isn’t sponsored content, just enthusiasm. For more of that, see the post I wrote back in June, about travelling to the Alps by train.)

Come and see me onstage

Duncan Steer and I have some events coming up in the North East of England in February – we’ll be in Newcastle on Wednesday the 26^th, and Pickering on Thursday the 27^th. Tickets are selling briskly, so get them while you can.

We’re thinking of adding another date on Tuesday the 25^th February – get in touch if you’d desperately like us to visit your town.

A small Christmas present for subscribers

Next week’s post will be something I promised a while ago: a deleted chapter from my first book, What Goes Around. I spent weeks working on this in 2015, and was quite proud of how it turned out, but in the end there wasn’t space for it in the book. You’ll be the only people who’ve ever read it, apart from my editor at Faber.

It’ll go out next Monday, at the usual time, and it’s quite a lot longer than usual, as I’m assuming people might have a bit more time and leisure on their hands that week.

And now, on with the essay.

---

I’ve got used to the questions people tend to ask me after I’ve given a talk. There are always a few completely new ones that take me by surprise, but some of them have become very predictable – which is not to say I mind answering them. I will always enjoy ranting about how we need to stop asking women whether it’s too dangerous for them to travel alone, and wracking my brains for my favourite country to cycle in.¹

Occasionally over the years someone has asked me about my cycling heroes, and it took me a while to work out how to respond. In the split second before I had to start speaking, a parade of legends would whirl through my head, and I’d wonder whether it would be too predictable to name Dervla Murphy; too controversial to cite Nicole Cooke; too niche to mention Alfonsina Strada – or whether there was in fact someone even more obvious whose existence I had momentarily forgotten.

Eventually, I came up with my answer.