Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent - Edinburgh Festival of Cycling

Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent

Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent

Event Details


Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent Cancelled

Update: An email was sent to everyone who had booked offering them a refund, if you didn’t get one, please get in touch.

Update two: This event has now been rescheduled for the 10th of November 2022, see here for details!

Emily Chappell is an author, adventurer and advocate, known for her long-distance bicycle journeys and the words with which she shares them. Her first book, What Goes Around, was described by The Guardian as “a lovely lyric poem to the city,” and told the story of her years as a London cycle courier – the hidden corners of the city, the honest agony of cold toes and tired legs, the blissful moments when bike and body and city fall into harmony, and the endless encounters with London’s rich and ever-changing cast of characters.

Her second book, the newly published Where There’s A Will, follows Emily’s journey into the curious world of long-distance self-supported bike races and gives a unique insight into how it feels to race across a continent: cycling through both sunrise and sunset, sleeping only for snatched minutes in fields and forests, navigating through mountain ranges and along remote unpaved roads, and searching out food along the way.

Emily captures the loneliness and unexpected camaraderie of long-distance racing and intricately describes the moments of joy, despair, confidence and self-doubt that her mind cycles through as she pushes her body to the limit.

An engaging and humorous speaker, Emily will tell the improbable story of how she ended up winning the 4,000 km Transcontinental race across Europe, read aloud from Where There’s A Will, and answer questions about every aspect of cycling and writing books.

Your compère for this evening of adventure, joy, despair, camaraderie and hope will be Jenny Tough, who is herself no stranger to ultra-distance racing, adventuring and writing.

Tickets: Adult £11, Concession £9. If you would like to order a copy of one (or both) of Emily’s book(s) please indicate below so that we know how many books to bring (payment for books will be collected on the evening).

Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent

Emily Chappell Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent Book cover

Edinburgh Festival of Cycling