Emily Chappell: What Goes Around, A London Cycle Courier's Story Meet the Author

the council issuing a warning to some residents in Aberdeen city to

prepare for possible flooding and leave their homes. More on that

coming up. Now on BBC News, it's time

for Meet the Author. She takes part in long-distance

endurance races and she spent six It is called What Goes Around

and it is the story of those years she spent as a courier but also

a sometimes lyrical book about London, about the camaraderie

and culture of cyclists, about being an outsider, about love,

about gender, about weather. Emily Chappell, being a cycle

courier is physically gruelling. It doesn't, judging by your book,

make a lot of money, I think the best answer

is it is a bit like an addiction. You get this immense joy

and excitement from cycling all day and I think it has a chemical effect

on your body and when you get in in the evening you have this

blissful exhaustion and the meal you eat, your beans on toast,

is the best beans on toast you have ever tasted, your bed is the most

comfortable bed in the world. Then if you try to stop you suddenly

realise the world seems I think that's maybe the reason

people keep going with it and do it What is it specifically

about couriering that takes it One thing that occurred to me

while I was writing the book is part of the satisfaction of couriering

is you are on a mission It might be, take this envelope

to the City, but there is this sense of, you have a task,

and it is a task you can manage, track of the objective,

but then you are on the bike and you have to find a way

there and you have to go fast and you have the end in sight

and you tick off that job, Your job is made up of this series

of challenging but ultimately Let us get one thing out

of the way early on. As a pedestrian in London I find

cyclists sometimes terrifying even when they are stopping at the red

lights and not cycling I think of them as kind of reckless

and actually rather dangerous. Can it be reckless

and dangerous? As a cyclist I have identical fears

of pedestrians and I pride myself on being a law-abiding cyclist

and I know not all of them are, but every day I would be terrified

several times a day by somebody wandering out into the road

while looking at their phone or crossing against the lights

or stepping out in front of me. You fear you might crash into them,

they might knock you off. Everybody needs to be

paying more attention. This is a book that is very

good on the particular It is more than that but you're very

good on describing the camaraderie of cyclists, things like the jargon,

words like track stand I am still not entirely clear

what it is. There are two major differences

with a fixie. One is that it does not have any

gears, so if you imagine a normal bike, take the gears of,

you only have one gear. But then what actually gives

you an advantage is that also On a normal bike if you stop

pedalling you just coast, the pedals On a fixie the pedals keep moving

and if you are foolish enough to stop pedalling the bike will stop

but what you can also do is monitor your speed and moderate

it by pedalling faster or slower or easing back a bit,

so you're much more connected to the bike and it actually makes it

easier because once the bike is rolling the pedals go

round of their own accord There is a community

of cycle couriers. Partly I suspect because demand

for couriering documents and artwork and so on around in this digital age

is much reduced. One of the things you talk

about in the book is a sense of nostalgia that all cycle couriers

seem to have for a lost past. I believe it does, but I think

it will look different There are still a lot

of you could say traditional cycle couriers that we all imagine,

but there are also a lot of people doing food delivery,

people riding cargo bikes, like these large bikes that can

carry enormous quantities of stuff. The impression I get is that a lot

of them are rather shy, people with tremendous energy,

but often slight outsiders. Outsiders is probably the best way

you could generalise, because one thing I have been amazed

by is how incredibly diverse I think often people end up

being a courier because they do not quite fit in anywhere else

and it is a job that lets Is that how you see yourself and how

you became a courier? I never seriously thought

I would get another job I never actually thought

I would make it into academia. Then quite cheesily I found myself

whilst being a courier. I had always, since I was a child,

wanted to be a writer I did not really think

I would make it. I thought, I will be an academic

and that will be that sort of thing. Then I turned my back on all that

and I became a cycle courier You are not merely a cycle courier

but you are, not a professional cyclist, but someone who has cycled

from London to Tokyo, for which you deserve a degree

of respect, you have cycled You now take part in endurance

cycle races, days long. Is this your addiction

working itself out? I think that is possibly me just

chasing a bigger and bigger hit. I had this slight fear

when I was a courier that that was it and I was at the height

of my youth and beauty and after that I was going to have

to find a real job and probably just sit at a desk and develop a bad back

and a spare tyre and look What actually happened was I felt

I have to find something I think the hit you get

from cycling, it gives you this energy but you keep having

to feed the energy. Cycling is so interesting

because there are so many different If you get bored of one sort you can

move sideways into In terms of how far I can cycle

in a day I could probably In terms of how long

I plan to keep going, There are a lot of people

who still do, and it is really exciting knowing I have

that much ahead of me. Emily Chapple, thank

you very much indeed. Stay with us for the top stories but

now, a look at the weather forecast... Good evening. It has

been another day of persistent wet weather in north-eastern Scotland