'Jones' book read like an extended article for GQ, which is not all that surprising. He must have really enjoyed it, meeting lots of interesting people to interview, anecdotes from his showbiz mates and not really needing to do any academic research. It would have made a better article than a book - wonderful as the song is, there is only so much that can be said about it. 'The Wheels of Change' fell out of the bookshelf when I was looking for something else, and I don't think I've read it since the '90s. there was a slip of paper inside from Eleanor & Dan Whitehead's wedding, which would date it to 2003-ish, but I seem to remember last reading it before Alastair Briggs set off to cycle around the world after we all graduated - so 1998ish. I remember at the time I thought Wells was very earnest and took the whole cycling adventure and saving a young woman's virtue very seriously, but now it reads very tongue-in-cheek, and young Hoopdriver's low social status and opinion of himself comes to the fore more. There is the bonus of their escapades occurring on cycling routes to the southwest of London that I cycle on myself these days - Putney, Ripley, Guildford, Godalming, Chichester. . . we are getting ready to go on holiday to the Netherlands and Belgium on Friday (today is monday), hopefully lots of cycling there too.
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