bicycle
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Reliability
Bracken unfurls skywards, sun salutations, as bluebells fade. White speckles, firework sparkles of blooming cow parsley. Box cut hedgerow all splintered angles and jagged shadows. A spaceman stands beside a silver space pod… oh hang on, a beekeeper next to a battered Ford. Shepherds HillFive ChimneysLimekiln ForestBrinkers Surfing ridges, seeing backwards and forwards, where I’ve…
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Chasse Aux Châteaux d’Eau
The tide must have dragged the ferry across the Channel as we’re kicked off earlier than usual, 4am. Another hours sleep would have been nice but stars speckle the sky indicating promising weather for the day ahead. A gentle climb twists out of Dieppe over the cliffs. A sweeping pulsing cone of light in the…
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South Downs ‘zines
Two new zines about the South Downs will be available by the end of the month in the UK via my Big Cartel shop or in person from me at zine fairs. I’ll be at the Glasgow Zine Festival in May and I’ll post news of other events here and on Instagram. HIDDEN (available now)…
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Meet Me By The Water Tower (again)
Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will know that for over a decade I’ve ridden along the coast from Brighton where I live to Newhaven to hop on the ferry to Dieppe and cycle on quiet roads and eat good pastries. Water towers are a recurring motif across the northern France landscape…
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Ride ‘zines
Recently I’ve made a handful of ‘zines based on bike rides over the years. The Picos and Nyhavn first appeared on this blog but I’ve edited or re-written the text extensively. All of them are A6 folded booklets that unfold to A3 with maps, photos and/or words on the reverse side. Full colour digital print…
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Glimpses
Solstice ride in Normandy. 243km, a Holga and a single roll of 120 film. Playing with ideas for a set of screenprints or maybe another book.
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The shortest straightest line rarely beckons
There’s a stream that runs by the office where I work. The Winterbourne, its name a clue. It runs high and fast when the South Downs saturate and the chalk aquifers deep inside overflow. It’s an indicator of conditions on the Downs and it helps me decide my cycle commute. The office is in Lewes,…
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twelve
Ker-clunk. Twenty fourth stamp in my passport and waved straight onto the ferry. I pick up my phone from the floor next to my inflatable pillow. It’s 02:38. Is that French time or UK time? Oh hang on, phone isn’t displaying home and away times, it must be UK time. Open Google Maps, blue dot…
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ten
The bow ramp clangs onto the slipway, or maybe the stern, it’s difficult to tell with the symmetry of the ferry, depositing me behind the Seine. Vanishing points strobe in the sunshine, a zoetrope flicker, rows of netted fruit trees pulling my eyes back to the river and the silver-white rock walls swathed in woodland…
the man from icon 