Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Richard Williams Jeremy Wilson brings alive this extraordinary woman's achievements (and problems, too - she wasn't always the best mother) in this fabulous biography.
I like to think I know more about cycling than the average person, but I'd never heard of Beryl Burton before hearing about this book and I feel ashamed to say that. Nathalie Issa * The Daily Telegraph * Beryl was a woman ahead of her time, she was an incredible athlete with an inspirational mindset, and we are only left to imagine what she would have achieved given the same opportunities as the women's peloton now has.
The book explains her upbringing, her home life while riding, her athletic feats and her sad premature death. Despite the inevitable similarities to another Burton biography, there is enough new material here for it to be an equally compelling proposition – so the same score is justified. Beryl Potter was a reserved working-class mother of three living a decent life, or so it seemed, when a harmless slip and fall marked the unravelling of everything that she had known about herself and the world around her.
In my previous review I also mentioned that it's always hard to compare performances across different eras; however, in a prime example of what makes this book so different to a more conventional biography, Wilson has actually done exactly that. There's no denying her achievements and how she was a trailblazer, so if you enjoy cycling i'm sure this book is for you. However, with women at that time excluded from Olympic cycling, the possibility of even greater celebrity was denied to her – while performances on the world stage brought her more attention abroad than they did at home. As an example, at 15 pages Wilson devotes three times as much space to Burton's only 24-hour time trial as Fotheringham, who in turn wrote twice as much about it as Burton did in her autobiography, Personal Best. Jeremy Wilson brings alive this extraordinary woman's achievements (and problems, too - she wasn't always the best mother) in this fabulous biography.This book is a fantastic addition to the collection of anyone with a passion for activism, social justice, and disability studies. Last time I wrote a review about a biography of Beryl Burton (which is not something you get to say very often), I questioned why it had taken so long for one to appear; now I am wondering why we have another one already!
Wilson covers the training, the barriers, the difficult relationship with her daughter, and weaves together a fascinating picture of this supreme athlete. Written with the depth the subject deserves, Fotheringham’s book should be just-about accessible enough for the disinterested reader – and will be hoovered-up by fans. There’s an element of early life trauma, but also just being driven to the detriment of everything else. Soon followed by rheumatic fever, the result was nine months in hospital away from her family, fifteen more in convalescence, and the advice from her doctors that she should avoid strenuous exercise for the rest of her life. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.Driven by something almost beyond rational comprehension, what emerges from Fotheringham’s biography is an occasionally uncomfortable but always engaging portrait of one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes. Like, you can’t say women aren’t good at sport when some of them (like Beryl) could beat those amateur men (like she did for the 12 hour time trial, where she was the fastest for both men and women, and held the men’s record for 2 years). Initially tagging along-on supposedly sociable club runs with her husband, Burton decided she’d never let on if she was suffering. Our need for ritual is primordial, and embracing its logic can help us connect, find meaning and discover who we are.
Great Deal 
New Comment