Memoir of a cycle courier set in London (“swerve, brake or die”)
- Book: What Goes Around: A London Cycle Courier’s Story
- Location: London
- Author: Emily Chappell
Ever wondered what it is like to be a cycle courier in London? And a female one at that? Emily gives up her predetermined life in academia to work initially as one of two females in a courier company in the capital. As anyone can imagine, it is a hard job through all the seasons, from the biting winds and rain of the Winter months, through the irritations of plane tree pollen in Spring, to the heat of Summer. And of course the vagaries and at times vitriolic behaviour of other road users is undeniable. It is a profession that is ‘unseen’ by most of us and one whose companion is constant solitude. The life of a cycle courier is certainly not for the faint-hearted!
At first I wasn’t altogether sure that this was a memoir for me. The wheels seem to turn relatively slowly in the early part. It was a solid – well written – and at times a didactic read about the nature of bikes and cycling; who favours a freewheel as opposed to a fixed gear. A Salsa Cyclocross or Surly Steamroller didn’t mean anything to me.
But soon the speed picked up and I found myself rooting for this young woman, whose vulnerability and self effacing demeanour belied the steely exterior of a typical cycle courier, who might cover 1000 miles a week.
I really warmed to the writer when she chose novels to read in the periods when she had no packages to deliver. In terms of TripFiction I was delighted to find that she chose several London-set books, including Iris Murdoch’s “Under the Net“. Descriptions of the Holborn Viaduct contained in that book enabled her to look afresh at this area of London, where the city folds in half, with the River Fleet running far below. In addition Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-Pool Library inspired her to search for Lord Nantwich’s house; and finally Sebastian Faulks gets short shrift in his novel A Week in December “.. [a] novel that attempts to represent London’s bustle and diversity by amassing a disparate and thinly drawn cast, just about their only uniting feature being that they are all, at one point or another, set upon by a speeding cyclist”. Indeed there are plenty of people in the city who rail against the cycle courier, for, well, no real reason,other than the cyclists are vulnerable targets (i.e. not encased in a car), ubiquitous, are perceived to get in the way, and thus easy prey to vent spleen?
Much of the writing is actually about the author’s inner self, someone who struggles with quite some self doubt. When she first meets one of her partner’s old friends and lovers (difficult of course) she worried herself into the ground that she would be judged and found wanting. And of course being in a male dominated community has its own difficulties.
It was good to see the anecdotes of life on two wheels start to build up, including a delivery to Downing Street and a missing package (luckily not one of Emily’s deliveries) worth £10 million. Driving past the Broadwick Street Pump she spots tour guides informing and misinforming the London visitor about how Dr John Snow traced cholera to this exact pump in 1854… And indeed there are the Cycle Messenger World Championships, who knew?
London is brought to life in the author’s capable hands, and a potentially overwhelming city becomes manageable through familiarity – “Places and spaces change with knowledge. They shrink, and become habitable and negotiable“. Emily certainly conveys this in this memoir. “The strange and seductive satisfaction of courieuring” that Emily describes means that I will observe these streaking human dynamos in a new light…
This review first appeared on our blog, where we talk to Emily about life as a cycle courier and London
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