Cyclogeography - Journeys of a London Bicycle Courier - Jon Day

Cyclogeography: Journeys of a London Bicycle Courier - Jon Day / ISBN 9781907903991 / small 168-page hardback published in 2024 by Notting Hill Editions

***

Cyclogeography is about the bicycle in the cultural imagination and also a portrait of London as seen from the saddle. In the great tradition of the psychogeographers, Jon Day attempts to depart from the map and reclaim the streets of the city. Informed by several grinding years spent as a bicycle courier, he lifts the lid on the solitary life of the courier. Traveling the unmapped byways, shortcuts, and urban edgelands, couriers are the declining, invisible workforce of the city. The parcels they deliver keep things running. For those who survive the crushing toughness of the job, the bicycle can become what holds them together.

'This is a street-smart, super-sharp exploration of the ‘soft city’ as seen from the saddle; Jon Day has written a bold and clever book about the zone where capital and cycling collide. It fascinated me from first page to last.'—Robert Macfarlane