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end to end - a tale of obsession, hallucination and happiness. paul jones. little, brown publishing hardback. 329pp illus. £16.99

"Everyone makes it to the start."

several years ago, a young chap from islays joined the velo club's sunday morning bike ride in training for an upcoming ride from john o'groats southwards to lands end. quite what he hoped to gain in the way of fitness or stamina, riding with a bunch of old farts ultimately en-route to coffee at debbie's, i failed to understand, but hopefully it contributed to his eventual successful completion of the route. however, on his return to the principality, we took great pleasure in saying "we told you so", following so-called expert advice on his choice of direction.

though climate change may have played a modicum of havoc with britain's prevailing winds, current wisdom would indicate that they have a tendency to blow from south to north, something exeprienced often at extremes on his southerly pedal. that said, there's not one of us who accompanied him on sunday mornings, would have had the cojones to attempt the ride in either direction. or even undertaken the necessary training, come to that.

however, his ride had been in favour of charitable fundraising, taking several days, rather than attempting to wear himself out in the pursuit of a new record. paul jones' latest book takes a look at the selfsame bike ride, but in its more favoured direction leading from lands end to john o'groats, very much as a process of breaking records, rather than for more leisurely purposes.

however, though the author's bike ride from lands end to john o'groats actually took place, albeit over several days, accompanied by his mum in a campervan, paul jones has effectively employed lejog as a means of accomplishing another journey altogether, one that began with him leaving his job as a secondary school headteacher "...despite having no other job to go to, and with plenty of rage against the world." an obsession with the end to end not only filled the time his sudden abdication had provided, but led to investigations into the ride's chequered history and to meet with several of those who had pushed themselves to the limit in the attempt to lower the time taken for completion (currently held by andy wilkinson on a recumbent in a time of 41 hours, 4 minutes and 22 seconds. the author meets with wilkinson in a chapter entitled, 'Andy Wilkinson wasn't too bad at cycling') the record for the distance on a conventional bike is held by michael broadwith (a gentleman also featured in the book) - 43 hours 25 minutes 13 seconds.

The event began its illustrious career at the hands of c. a. harman and h. blackwell in 1880, the latter having kept a diary over the course of twelve days and subsequently published in 'the wheel world' cycling magazine. for such a well-known shindig, it would be easy to imagine both the start and finish to be of notable stature, but in point of fact, according to both the author and h. blackwell, nothing could be further from the truth.

"...a fine mass of broken rock, but not as impressive as one could wish or expect.", while the finish at the far north of scotland fares little better. "I cannot help expressing my disappontment at the celebrated terminus, and surprise that so many tourists should ever go so far..." of course, for those intent on lowering the record, scenery is scarcely uppermost on the to-do list.

in the process of undertaking his own journey from end to end, paul jones speaks to several of those who successfully completed the 847 miles, setting new records for their era, following an intelligent appreciation of riders from earlier eras including the aforementioned harman and blackwell, george pilkington mills and lawrence fletcher, to name but four. those rides coincided with the bicycle' halcyon days as a "... revolutionary means of personal mobility, allowing people to go much farther and faster..."

riders such as eileen sheridan, dave keeler, dick poole, janet tebbutt and gethin butler are all graced by the jones' presence in what at first seemed like an investigative quest to inform his own attempt on the end to end record. however, his enjoyable, self-deprecative narrative quickly disavows the reader of any such notion, one which could probably have been realised earlier on closer examination of the contents, to wit 'Chapter 17 - I find Drumochter, Mum finds the middle of Scotland'. however, as previously alluded, the author's journey is perhaps a deal more complex than the simple act of riding north for over 800 miles. but then again, it transpires that the bicycle may be the hero of this story.

"Sometimes there is so much noise - from work, from decisions taken or not taken, relationships, family, friendships, and everything else, the wall of data and served adverts - that getting on your bike and heading out the door is the only way to make sense of it."

though i'd imagine anyone who even secretly refers to themselves as 'a cyclist', is aware of the lands end to john o'groats bike ride as a means of attempting to set records, not all will know much more than the name. the intense physical and mental stamina required simply to ride such a distance in a single serving should not be underestimated, multiplied by several factors if attempting to do so as fast as possible, with as little sleep as possible. several riders carried on in an attempt to break the record for 1000 miles. paul jones has succeeded in capturing both the joys and the horrors.

however, while not all attempts have resulted in success, i believe that paul jones succeeded in his own end to end journey, even if it took a tad longer than that of andy wilkinson. "Some people ask if I've done the journey, I say yes, sort of. Mum chimes in, 'Yes he has, and it took him a lot of effort and I'm really proud of him."

end to end, by paul jones is published on thursday, 1 april.

thanks to the generosity of little, brown publishers, i have a copy of paul jones' 'end to end' to give away to the first correct answer to the following question when pulled from the support vehicle. who holds the current 'lands end to john o'groats' record set on a conventional bike? answers to brian@twmp.net, and please include a full postal address. closing date is monday 5 april.

wednesday 31 march 2021