Life Cycle : A Bike Ride Round Scotland (and Back to Childhood)

A casual conversation between Gary Sutherland and his brother Stewart about going on a bike ride leads to an extraordinary trip in which they travel the length and breadth of Scotland, and this book documents their adventures. In order to recapture some of the magic of childhood years spent cycling around their home town of Hopeman on the Morayshire coast, the Sutherland brothers—older but none the wiser—set off from the back gate of the house they grew up in on a journey of a thousand miles. From the mountains of the Highlands to the traffic-snarled streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, they ate up Scotland on two wheels and became boys again, pedaling for all they were worth on a road trip of a lifetime that brought pain and laughter in equal measure.

Gary Sutherland has worked as an ice cream maker, candyfloss maker, shortbread maker, teacher, bookseller, sports journalist, and travel writer. He is the author of Great Balls of Fire and Hunting Grounds.