Robert Penn rides a bicycle to get to work, sometimes for work, to keep fit, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, to savour the physical and emotional fellowship of riding with friends, to escape when the world is breaking his balls, for fun, occasionally to impress someone, to scare himself and to hear his boy laugh. He’s ridden a bicycle most days of his adult life, in over forty countries on five continents. In his late-twenties, he pedalled around the world.
Robert’s latest book It’s All About the Bike: the Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels is published by Penguin Press in the UK. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. In the USA It’s All About the Bike is published by Bloomsbury. The book has been translated into eleven languages.
Robert is currently filming a new six-part TV series for BBC 4 called Wild Wood, to be broadcast in autumn 2012.
As a journalist, Robert writes for the Financial Times, The Observer, Sunday Times and Conde Nast Traveller, as well as a host of cycling publications.
Next speaking events:
Thursday 31st May, 7pm – I’m taking part in a debate about localism/globalism, as part of ‘How the Light Gets In Festival‘ at Hay-on-Wye.
Friday 8th June, 8pm – I’m chairing an event with William Fotheringham and Stephen Roche at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. It’ll be a cracker. Book early.
