Revolutionary Ride

In 2011, at the height of tension between the British and Iranian governments, travel writer Lois Pryce found a note left on her motorcycle outside the Iranian Embassy in London: ... I wish that you will visit Iran so you will see for yourself about my country. WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS!!! Please come to my city, Shiraz. It is very famous as the friendliest city in Iran, it is the city of poetry and gardens and wine!!! Your Persian friend, Habib Intrigued, Lois decides to ignore the official warnings against travel (and the warnings of her friends and family) and sets off alone on a 3,000 mile ride from Tabriz to Shiraz, to try to uncover the heart of this most complex and incongruous country. Along the way, she meets carpet sellers and drug addicts, war veterans and housewives, doctors and teachers - people living ordinary lives under the rule of an extraordinarily strict Islamic government. Revolutionary Ride is the story of a people and a country. Religious and hedonistic, practical and poetic, modern and rooted in tradition - and with a wild sense of humour and appreciation of beauty despite the comparative lack of freedom - this is real contemporary Iran.

Ride the Revolution represents the best new writing on cycling from women involved in the sport at all levels – as fans, key personnel, riders, photographers, journalists and presenters. When Marie Marvingt decided to ride the 1908 Tour de France she was told 'absolument, non!' by M. Degranges and the Societe du Tour de France. Instead she rode each stage 15 minutes after the official race had departed and finished all 4,488 kms of the parcours - a feat that only 36 of the 110 men who entered the race could equal. Her motto? "I decided to do everything better, always and forever." It's in the spirit of Breakneck Marie that this book has been written. This is not an anthology of women writing about women's cycling. Nor is it an anthology of women writing about men's bottoms in lycra, or peloton crushes or the curse of helmet hair. This is an book that celebrates the diversity of women's writing about the glorious, sometimes murky, often bizarre and frequently hilarious world of cycling in all its soapy operatic glory - from the professional sport to the club run, on the roadside and in the saddle, behind the scenes and on the massage table. These fresh and vibrant voices examine the sport from a new perspective to provide insights that rarely make it into the mainstream - what is it like to be a top women rider or work in their support team? Where is the women's sport heading and when will more women be represented at the highest level of sport's governance? And how do you get out and ride your bike when the news is full of stories of cyclists dying and you can't get clothing that fits?

The Connecticut countryside, 1777. A messenger arrives at Sybil Ludington’s farm with bad news. British soldiers are starting to burn villages in the area. Someone must alert the colonial militia, and the messenger is too tired. Sybil volunteers to ride from farm to farm through the dark forest. Can she rouse the soldiers in time?

As the former Colonies struggle for freedom, the Revolution depends on teenage Susanna Bolling. Like America in rebellion, she craves independence. While her Patriot brothers fight, she longs to help. When British General Cornwallis invades her plantation, she hears his secret plan. America's fight for liberty hinges on her.

When Marie Marvingt decided to ride the 1908 Tour de France she was told 'absolument, non!' by M. Degranges and the Societe du Tour de France. Instead she rode each stage 15 minutes after the official race had departed and finished all 4,488 kms of the parcours - a feat that only 36 of the 110 men who entered the race could equal. Her motto? "I decided to do everything better, always and forever." It's in the spirit of Breakneck Marie that this book has been written. This is not an anthology of women writing about women's cycling. Nor is it an anthology of women writing about men's bottoms in lycra, or peloton crushes or the curse of helmet hair. This is an book that celebrates the diversity of women's writing about the glorious, sometimes murky, often bizarre and frequently hilarious world of cycling in all its soapy operatic glory - from the professional sport to the club run, on the roadside and in the saddle, behind the scenes and on the massage table. Ride the Revolution represents the best new writing on cycling from women involved in the sport at all levels – as fans, key personnel, riders, photographers, journalists and presenters. These fresh and vibrant voices examine the sport from a new perspective to provide insights that rarely make it into the mainstream - what is it like to be a top women rider or work in their support team? Where is the women's sport heading and when will more women be represented at the highest level of sport's governance? And how do you get out and ride your bike when the news is full of stories of cyclists dying and you can't get clothing that fits?

In 1777, on a cold and stormy night in the New York Colony, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington makes a dangerous and difficult ride to warn the local militiamen that the British Army is looting and burning nearby Danbury, Connecticut. Simultaneous.

"Narrative nonfiction book focused on the drama, adventure, and suspense of Sybil Ludington's nighttime ride to alert local militia of British invasion in the American Revolutionary War."--Provided by publisher.

Discusses the events leading up to Paul Revere's ride, and reinforces his importance in the history of the Revolutionary War.