In the absence of ‘cycling books by women’ in most ‘books about cycling’ lists, inspired by excellent female cycling author, speaker, inspirational adventurer and general hero, Emily Chappell,
Pause for breath…
Here’s a quick list of books written in and around 2018 alone, by women, on cycling, that I pitched to a few outlets in the hopes of making a Christmas gift ideas list (that was sadly declined).
Bikes and Bloomers, by Kat Jungnickel Published Mar/Apr 2018. - women inventors who pushed back against Georgian/Victorian societal constraints, and risked life and limb, to ride bikes. I read and loved it, and spoke at the book launch. She wrote this on it: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2018/apr/16/the-ingenious-cyclewear-victorian-women-invented-to-navigate-social-mores; you can buy it here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/bikes-and-bloomers-victorian-women-inventors-and-their-extraordinary-cycle-wear/kat-jungnickel/9781906897758
Queens of Pain, by Isabel Best - published Oct 18 - Inspiring stories of tough women racers from racing's history - many women in this book were forgotten until now but they were just as gutsy as their better-known male counterparts, even if less well paid (plus ca change). Women who pushed boundaries and expectations and proved themselves champions. I bought a copy at the Rapha book launch https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/stories/queens-of-pain-legends-and-rebels-of-cycling
Bicycle/Race by Adonia Lugo - published October 9, 2018 - about cycling and race, which is important as cycling is still very white (https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/7833).
Jools Walker's Back in the Frame will be out this year, soon. Jools is a big champion of better representation of women of colour in cycling. One to look out for: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Frame-Jools-Walker/dp/0751570788.
How to build a bike by Jenni Gwiazdowski - published Oct 17 but brilliant, and unusual, as a bike building book by an awesome woman. https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/8870
The Road Book 2018 - on the 2018 women's racing season. You can be what you can see, as Emma Pooley put it, at the launch of the Women's tour this year, when they announced equal prize money https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/velofocus/the-road-book-2018-womens-cycling-coffee-table-boo
And of course, by the woman who inspired publication of this blog, What Goes Around is Emily Chappell’s wonderful account of her years as a London cycle courier, which you can buy here: https://guardianbookshop.com/catalog/product/view/id/363009/s/what-goes-around/?utm_source=editoriallink&utm_medium=merch&utm_campaign=article