The Escape Artist

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Matt Seaton's memoir of his ten-year obsession with amateur cycle racing contains moments of high drama as he describes the pain and exhilaration of life in the saddle, as well as passages of deep sadness as he abandons competitive cycling to cope with the terminal illness of his wife.

Reviews of The Escape Artist:

"As poignant an elegy as I have ever read. I finished the last chapters of this book just before I went to sleep, and in the morning, with a swoop of grief in my guts, it was the first thing I thought of"
- Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph

"Thoroughly tragic and almost brilliant. The Escape Artist is an achingly sad account of what Seaton now refers to as 'my former life'"
- Robert MacFarlane, Observer

"A heart-stopping examination of how, why and for what we push ourselves to the edge. I never thought I'd cry about bikes and cycling. It is one of those rare books you could give to absolutely anyone - and one you'll want to keep by you and read again and again"
- Julie Myerson

"This book is, above all, about passion and loss. It's about the passion of life at the very edge of athletic and mechanical achievement that is eventually lost to love of a wife and children, which in turn gives way to the loss of the wise and mother herself. I read and relished this book"
- Jon Snow, Guardian

Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9781841151045
Publication date: 02/06/03
192 pages / paperb