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Nicely written, fun & informative. A proper pop-sci book.

Recommendation from a friend.

This took me ages to read, because it was depressing and boring. I suppose there’s only so much you can write about the decline in these wonderful birds, which means the book is full of repetition. I wonder if the author’s mind works in a different way to mine, since I was never gripped by any of her writing, even in her most impassioned parts. It all just felt removed, which made it mostly boring on top of the sadness of it all.

F is reading it and enjoying it.

It’s fine. The Prologue was good, and thus encouraging, but the rest of the book wasn’t as interesting. It’s more of a list of “things cyclists do on mountains” than “why cyclists like mountains”, and there’s my usual bugbear of testosterone-fuelled conquering of mountains rather than the beauty of being amongst them.

Fantastic. There's no fluff, no messing about, no wishy-washy kiddie's stuff, just proper adventure and meaning and love.

My son says it’s brilliant, and that I should read it too. Who am I to argue.