Book Recommendations

Revolutionary Ride

By Lois Pryce

Travel, Middle East, General, Transportation, Motorcycles, Essays & Travelogues, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social | 304 pages
1 recommendation

'Warm, funny . . . It's had my whole family howling with laughter and shedding a few tears' - Shappi Khorsandi, Guardian

'A proper travelogue - a joyful, moving and stereotype-busting tale' - National Geographic Traveller, Books of the Year

In 2011, at the height of tension between the British and Iranian governments, travel writer Lois Pryce found a note left on her motorcycle outside the Iranian Embassy in London:

... I wish that you will visit Iran so you will see for yourself about my country. WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS!!! Please come to my city, Shiraz. It is very famous as the friendliest city in Iran, it is the city of poetry and gardens and wine!!!
Your Persian friend,
Habib


Intrigued, Lois decides to ignore the official warnings against travel (and the warnings of her friends and family) and sets off alone on a 3,000 mile ride from Tabriz to Shiraz, to try to uncover the heart of this most complex and incongruous country. Along the way, she meets carpet sellers and drug addicts, war veterans and housewives, doctors and teachers - people living ordinary lives under the rule of an extraordinarily strict Islamic government.

Revolutionary Ride is the story of a people and a country. Religious and hedonistic, practical and poetic, modern and rooted in tradition - and with a wild sense of humour and appreciation of beauty despite the comparative lack of freedom - this is real contemporary Iran.

*Shortlisted for the Adventure Travel Book of the Year Award*

'Within a few pages I'd recognised a kindred spirit' - Dervla Murphy, author of Full Tilt

Latest recommendations
Christine Moon
10th Sep 2024
"A captivating travelogue written by an intrepid and fearless traveller, Lois Pryce paints an insightful picture of this sometimes misunderstood country. This is an engaging read from the start, focussing on her encounters with the people she meets along her route and is written with both humour and empathy.

Whether you are a motorcyclist or not it is an inspiration to adventurous travellers everywhere. I have yet to visit Iran and it may be some time before we can travel there freely again, but this book brings this fascinating country and its people to life."