Recounting a motorcycle trip in print, when its duration is anything from 3 to 10 days, is not an easy task. As a reader you will doubtless have laboured through some monotonous descriptions of breakfasts and fuel stops and begged for it all to end, but when it’s done well it can capture the essence of that frisson we probably all felt when we first ventured into unknown lands, experiencing odd food and road signs.
Here Rendall manages to reproduce that excitement and the 9 stories contained within this title are strangely engaging. If you can see past the completely random and totally misunderstood use of apostrophes, the spelling and grammatical errors, and instead take yourself off for an annual European holiday with a bunch of characters from the north of England, I think you’ll enjoy it.
There is no battling through mud or sand and no pretence that there should be. There are twisty roads in the day, beer at night and the slow development of personal confidence to expand foreign vocabularies and engage with the locals. It’s as simple as that and regardless of how well-travelled you are you will probably find yourself making a note of certain routes and facilities and thinking ‘yes, I think I’ll go there’.
Some of the attitudes expressed may be a little old-school and you’ll be infuriated by the errors that should have been caught during proofing, but you might also find yourself getting on the phone to a couple of mates and saying ‘Do you want to go for a ride this summer?’
ISBN: 978-1-54995-3996
Paperback 251pp (£7.95)
Published by author (2017)