1923

A captivating journey of discovery into a lost world. A real joy to read. * Tom McTague * Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour de France under his skin, and you will too by the time you've read this * Al Murray, comedian, author and presenter of history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk * Ned's captivating book explores one man's obsession with this magnificent event and casts an intriguing light on a tiny fragment of a race long gone by * Alexei Sayle * Ned has created a rich tapestry from the finest of threads ... I felt transported back with him to the very origins of bike racing and the world that created it * David Millar * There has never been a cycling book quite like this one. A scrap of newsreel film, a century old and two and a half minutes long, sweeps Ned Boulting back not just into the world of a forgotten hero of the Tour de France but into the forces that shaped that world: a collision of sport, war, family and destiny. And as he searches for the tiniest clues among the faded celluloid shadows, he carries us along with him, making us his companions on a remarkable mission of rediscovery * Richard Williams, music and sports journalist * Beginning with a fragment of a century-old race, Ned has written a ‘biography of the unknown rider’. And in honouring him he’s told us more about bike racing, the Tour and about Europe in the years between the wars than we’d ever have learned from a book about a star * Michael Hutchinson, racing cyclist and writer * An absorbing mix of historical sleuthing and travel writing * The Telegraph *