This is going to sound like a Fishing Times writer reviewing War and Peace with an emphasis on the fishing but I'm a big fan of Margaret Atwood's work and I thought I'd mention the references she made to cycling and cyclists during her appearance at the Book Festival this evening.
Her reading was from Madd Addam; Jeb's escape from the air crash. Reduced to wearing stinking furs and eating raw bear meat he spots two mountain bikers on a trail. They're described as everything he's not: skinny and mad; thighs pumping, wrapped in skin-tight sportswear, panniers filled with Jeb's needs. He pushes the second rider over and steals his bike; escaping the wilderness with the machine the cyclist was using to escape civilisation. I got the feeling Atwood doesn't have much time for the lycra-clad side of cycling.
In the question and answer session, the last question was a brave one. "Would you describe yourself as a feminist?" "Define feminist" replied Atwood. She asked the audience how we would vote on freedoms once denied women, seguing into restrictions still placed on women by certain groups and neatly widening the question out. Cycling was one of the freedoms she mentioned, once curtailed for the suspicion that it caused "cycling face" and led to people having sex. It was a brilliant answer because we had all, of course, in the audience voted ourselves feminists on a range of issues (albeit mainly by the standards of the past).
As we left "Bicycle Race" by Queen was played over the PA which caused some laughter. An excellent event.
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