[a] fascinating and often touching book… Wonderful

An absorbing mix of historical sleuthing and travel writing

Spellbinding

A captivating journey of discovery into a lost world. A real joy to read.

Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour de France under his skin, and you will too by the time you’ve read this

Ned’s captivating book explores one man’s obsession with this magnificent event and casts an intriguing light on a tiny fragment of a race long gone by

Ned has created a rich tapestry from the finest of threads … I felt transported back with him to the very origins of bike racing and the world that created it

one of the most intelligent sporting books i have come across…the writing is compulsive, eloquently conveying the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds…excellent

There has never been a cycling book quite like this one. A scrap of newsreel film, a century old and two and a half minutes long, sweeps Ned Boulting back not just into the world of a forgotten hero of the Tour de France but into the forces that shaped that world: a collision of sport, war, family and destiny. And as he searches for the tiniest clues among the faded celluloid shadows, he carries us along with him, making us his companions on a remarkable mission of rediscovery

Delightful

utterly captivating…an amazing concept and a truly fascinating adventure into cycling, history and people… a truly addictive read.

Beginning with a fragment of a century-old race, Ned has written a ‘biography of the unknown rider’. And in honouring him he’s told us more about bike racing, the Tour and about Europe in the years between the wars than we’d ever have learned from a book about a star

This is a wonderful piece of writing that transcends sport.

Boulting’s enthusiasm for the footage is catching. [He] is a sympathetic writer and an extremely knowledgeable historian.

Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour De France under his skin, and you will too by the time you read this

An engaging melange of sports writing, history, travelogue and detective story… Fascinating

An exceptional book

A great example of what constitutes the best longform writing about sport

A reminder that bike racing is inextricably bound to the history, characters and contours of its surroundings.

Such a poignant book. Ned Boulting is conjuring ghosts. I don’t know of many things more thrilling than this

the ITV commentator’s timely and lively account celebrates a lost hero of the 1923 Tour de France – The Daily Telegraph

Clever and original … Black and white grainy ghosts are brought back to colourful life in a tale which is part sport, history, travel and detective story.