#nowreading

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The author bought, unseen at auction, 2 minutes of newsreel cine film of the 1923 Tour de France and wrote a book about it. It's more intriguing than that makes it sound, certainly very wide-ranging (inevitably).
Sample line:
"The police were called, probably by now weary of having to break up violent Parisian aesthetes who disagreed about the nature of symbolism and reality"

Front cover of the book in question (1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession, by Ned Boulting). The background is red, the cover image is a still from the film. It's black and white. The cyclists, on a dusty rural road, ride towards the camera. They have the gear of the era: caps, goggles, spare innertubes slung over their shoulders, metal bidons on handlebars.