Search results for ""Author Julian Sayarer""

"Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLAREOn the small island of Surin, near the naval border of Thailand and Myanmar, an indigenous people known as Moken 'sea gypsies' struggle to maintain the same timeless existence as their ancestors. As real estate developers, oil exploration and industrial tourism reshape the waters they call home, Sayarer receives a mysterious offer from an idealistic Luxembourger determined to tell a tale of the Moken on film, and in search of a writer to detail the efforts of his motley crew. Events unfold in a reality strangely different to that version captured by the lens. In the quest for indigenous wisdom, cameras and tripods clutter bamboo huts, while fishing trips and dives are staged beneath the waves. With the quest for paradise seeming ever more artificial, award-winning author, Julian Sayarer instead begins listening to the stories of Laurie, an old sailor, with a life on the water behind him, and in whose ship the crew sail out into the Andaman Sea.

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Julian Sayarer grew up riding a bicycle. Working as a bike courier in London, he learned the world record for a circumnavigation by bike had been broken, and that cycling into the sunset had been bought by banks and big business. Determined to do things differently, Julian set out to take back the record for the people. Life Cycles is his story of that record, riding 110 miles every 24 hours for 6 months on only GBP8.84 a day - a route through jungles, snow and 20 different countries. He found himself stranded without money in the deserts of Kazakhstan, held up by insurrections in northwest China, and sleeping under motorway bridges in America's Deep South. Taken by life on the road and a spirit of adventure, he loved every minute of it. A tale of excitement and world politics by bicycle, travelling at 12mph, Julian found that the Tartars of Central Asia aren't so different to the trailer families of Louisiana. This book is a reminder that the world is out there - and it's waiting for us.

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AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016"Julian's tales of weaving through the streets of London on two wheels bring to life the gig economy, showing how things have changed in the modern workforce but have also stayed the same. Messengers gives the reader insights on what goes on behind the grand lobbies of the UK's banks and large companies, to see the people who really make business work" Financial TimesMessengers sees Julian Sayarer return to work as a London bicycle courier, after six months cycling around the world. From saddle and kerbside, his stories of delivering flowers to politicians, and administration notices to banks toppled by the financial crisis, make for a social history of a less seen city, written from the perspective of someone stuck in one of London's most insecure and poorly paid jobs.Underneath the deliveries, we meet London's bicycle messengers, a family drawn from jaded graduates, jailbirds and recovering drug addicts. The riders all share their brushes with the law, struggles on the breadline and compete together in alleycat races, forming an unlikely but tender community upon the streets.With a bicycle the one constant that seems to make sense of everything else, Messengers is a two-wheeled portrait of everyday life in a modern city at the start of the twenty-first century."Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE

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Winner of the STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR"This book seems prophetic in the wake of Donald Trump and the current controversy over 'fake news'" Daily Telegraph"One can't help thinking that the future of travel writing lies in this adventurous, postmodern genre" Sara WheelerDocumenting Sayarer's real life journey hitchhiking across the US, this fascinating memoir tells the story of the forgotten people lost in their own country, grappling to find a voice in the vast political landscape of the US.Recruited to work on a big documentary project, Julian goes to New York convinced he has hit big time at last. Finding the project cancelled he wanders the city streets and hitchhiking to San Francisco slowly starts to seem like the most sensible option for his career as a travel writer.The story finds an unseen America in rough shape; Julian meets a place of Interstates, forgotten towns and food deserts, always grappling with the scale and energy of the US. Julian tells a tale of Steinbeck, Kerouac and the vast, thundering indifference of American geography and culture at the start of a new century."On the Road for the Occupy Generation" Open Democracy"Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE

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When Julian Sayarer learns the world record for a circumnavigation by bicycle has been broken, and that adventure has been bought by banks and big business, he leaves his job as a London bike courier and sets out determined to take it back. Riding an average of 110 miles a day and as much as 240, he lives six months on the road and on a daily budget of £8.84. His route leads him through Europe and Russia, east to Shanghai, before reaching the jungles of Malaysia, the hills of New Zealand and the deserts and plains of North America. Twenty countries pass beneath his wheels, rolling through hurricanes and alongside homeless cycling tramps. Life Cycles is not only an account of incredible physical endurance but also a roadside view of a changing world. From US trailer families to Chinese factories and Kazakh nomads, this thrilling tale of discovery and adventure is a reminder that the world is out there and waiting for us.

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"A deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer's trademark style from the saddle and the roadside" CAROLINE EDENBy a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing"The best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts" Cycle Magazine"We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLAREOn the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border.Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history.Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home."A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves" Guardian

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