Howul: A Life’s Journey
David Shannon
Elsewhen Press, £10, pp200
David Shannon – Bernardine Evaristo’s husband – has taken more than a decade to write Howul and one suspects most of that time was spent honing the idiosyncratic prose; in this post-apocalyptic future, the description of the titular hero runs: “Hims face is also most grumpscrut… hims thinkings is sweet and kind.” It’s first a barrier and then a blessing; Howul is a naive beacon of light and healing in a brutal world, his entire outlook on life – that words and books are weapons – making this adventurous novel cohere into something more profound.
Revolutions
Hannah Ross
Orion, £14.99, pp352
Subtitled “How women changed the world on two wheels”, Hannah Ross’s fascinating history of women cycling their way to freedom is more a social history than a sporting one, full of inspirational tales of women getting on their bikes and transforming attitudes, gender structures and human rights. Taking in everything from the clothes Victorian women were “allowed” to wear on the brilliantly named Psycho ladies’ safety bike to the politics of inclusion, diversity and equality in 21st-century professional cycling, Revolutions is a rich story of empowerment, adventure and the sheer exhilaration of riding a bicycle.
Thinking Again
Jan Morris
Faber, £8.99, pp224
Speaking to the Observer last March, Jan Morris admitted that with this frank diary she was reaching the “end of things”. And so she was, the paperback now laden with the added poignancy that it would chronicle some of the last moments of an incredible life as a journalist, travel writer and historian, which ended last November. It’s a spry diary that only spans 130 days, discussing everything from Mrs Brown’s Boys to Donald Trump, but takes us back through decades of experiences and anecdotes, the overwhelming lesson from which is “be kind”.
To order Revolutions or Thinking Again go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
