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Books

Bicycling: the Marmite means of transport

Harry Mount is exhilarated by cycling — but finds Paul Smethurst’s history of the bicycle disappointingly stodgy

9 May 2015

9:00 AM

9 May 2015

9:00 AM

The Bicycle: Towards a Global History Paul Smethurst

Palgrave Macmillan, pp.194, £19.99

Bicycles — in Britain, anyway — are the Marmite means of transport. I am among the bicycle-lovers, almost religious and certainly addicted in my need to have a daily bike ride. But I can see why people — and drivers in particular — hate some of us: for our smugness, our need to keep on moving through red lights and along pavements.

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