Like many travel writers, Simon Parker’s life changed dramatically the day the UK entered lockdown.
Confined to home and with all his work dried up, Simon’s career literally finished overnight. Shortly afterwards, he discovered his close friend had died.
Clearly on the edge, Simon was concerned a long suppressed anxiety disorder was going to rear its ugly head and so he turned to the best medicine – travel and exercise.
Simon hopped on his bike at the northernmost point of Shetland, with only a sleeping bag and camping stove and he set off on an epic journey of 3,427 miles around Britain.
On the way, he met hundreds of other people like himself, trying to work their way through the pandemic and the problems it brought with it.
Now Simon has put all that into a wonderful book called Riding Out, which is a story of optimism and hope and a portrait of Britain as it made its way out of a country in crisis to a nation on the mend.
The book is divided into two parts, the beginning when Simon felt lost and hopeless, and the second as he slowly came to terms with the pandemic and found hope again.
Following his mantra of “to survive or outlast’’ and “to come safely through the storm’’, the book is well written and thought out, from a man who is an experienced travel writer.
Taking in a journey from Shetland to the Scillies, Dover to Durness, Simon learns to slow down and relax and navigate life’s hardest points at a gentle pace.
The book also contains images of his journey and the people he met and the places visited and with touching prose, it addresses the battle we all fought during lockdown.
Simon is an award-winning travel author and broadcaster and has reported from more than 100 countries. His love of discovering has seen him score a half century for the Guatemalan cricket team for the BBC and cycle 300 miles beside the US/Mexican border.
All adventures which helped Simon be the great story-teller he is today.
Publication date: 21st April 2022
UK Price: £16.99
ISBN: 9781800074996
Format: Hardback, portrait
Pages: 320
Riding Out – A Journey of Love, Loss and New Beginnings
By: Simon Parker
Published by: Summersdale
For more information and to purchase a copy of Riding Out, please visit: https://summersdale.com.
Rebecca Hay is an experienced travel writer and member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. Follow her adventures with her family on Twitter and Instagram @emojiadventurer and on Facebook via EmojiAdventurers2.
Images courtesy of Summersdale and Simon Parker
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