Julian Sayarer – författare

AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016; "Iberia" is Julian Sayarer's account of his impromptu journey across Portugal and Spain, from Lisbon towards Barcelona, undertaken during a pandemic on an old blue bicycle named Miles.; Finding himself in Lisbon amidst a pandemic, Julian Sayarer decides simply to ride. Through hazy landscapes and on baked roads, he pedals east. During long hours in the saddle, his thoughts traverse matters big and small - hopping from post-colonial culpability to the supremacy of an orange picked at the roadside; Across 900 miles of sun-drenched olive groves, vast mountainscapes, and dormant towns glimpsed through driving rain, Sayarer's journey is punctuated by fleeting, beautiful moments of human connection. Iberia is a celebration of a shared humanity and community found in a uniquely fragile time; Sayarer is a brilliantly thoughtful writer ... One can't help thinking that the future of travel writing lies in this adventurous, post-modern genre -- Sara Wheeler; Sayarer has made something of a specialism of reporting on the world from the roadside. -- Daily Telegraph; On the Road for the Occupy Generation -- Open Democracy; Sayarer's love of the open road and his ability to evoke the beauty of travelling by bike are a potent combination that makes you itch to go cycling -- Cycling Active

"A wonderful, vivid account of a record-breaking, 18,000-mile adventure" Cycle ActiveAn incredible record-breaking journey around the world in 169 days - solo and by bike - by the Stanford Dolman Prize-winning travel writer.When Julian Sayarer learns the world record for a circumnavigation by bicycle has been broken, and that adventure has been bought by banks and big business, he leaves his job as a London bike courier and sets out determined to take it back.Riding an average of 110 miles a day and as much as 240, he lives six months on the road and on a daily budget of £8.84. His route leads him through Europe and Russia, east to Shanghai, before reaching the jungles of Malaysia, the hills of New Zealand and the deserts and plains of North America. Twenty countries pass beneath his wheels, rolling through hurricanes and alongside homeless cycling tramps.Life Cycles is not only an account of incredible physical endurance but also a roadside view of a changing world. From US trailer families to Chinese factories and Kazakh nomads, this thrilling tale of discovery and adventure is a reminder that the world is out there and waiting for us.

"A deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer's trademark style from the saddle and the roadside" CAROLINE EDENBy a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing"The best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts" Cycle Magazine"We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLAREOn the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border.Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history.Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home."A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves" Guardian

"A deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer's trademark style from the saddle and the roadside" CAROLINE EDENBy a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing"The best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts" Cycle Magazine"We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLAREOn the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border.Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history.Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home."A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves" Guardian

"A deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer's trademark style from the saddle and the roadside" CAROLINE EDENBy a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing"The best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts" Cycle Magazine"We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLAREOn the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border.Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history.Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home."A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves" Guardian

BY THE AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR"Sayarer's thoughtful, meditative travelogue feels very important . . . [An] exploration of how people persevere in the darkest of circumstances" Guardian"It conveys powerfully what life is like for people on both sides of 'the world's most entrenched impasse'. At the same time, it's full of free spirits and the joys of freewheeling" TelegraphTen years after breaking a world record for cycling around the world, award-winning travel writer Julian Sayarer returns to two wheels on the roads of Israel and occupied Palestine. His route weaves from the ancient hills of Galilee, along the blockaded walls of the Gaza Strip and down to the Bedouin villages of the Naqab Desert. He speaks with Palestinian hip-hop artists who wonder if music can change their world, Israelis hoping that kibbutz life can, and Palestinian cycling clubs determined to keep on riding despite the army checkpoints and settlers that bar their way. Pedalling through a military occupation, in the chance encounters of the roadside, a bicycle becomes a vehicle of more than just travel, and cuts through the tension to find a few simple truths, and some hope. As the miles pass, the journey becomes a meditation on making change - how people in dark times keep their spirit, and go on believing that a different world is possible."The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE

Armed with a copy of The Motorcyle Diaries, Julian Sayarer sets out on his bicycle in a quest to follow the 1952 journey of Ernesto "Che" Guevara through Latin America. From the emptiness of the Argentine Pampa, to the vast Atacama Desert and the mighty Amazon River, the road reveals the story of Guevara himself, and of indigenous Mapuche communities shut inside reserves, lumber wars, copper mines, coca plantations and oil pipelines.Bringing the Diaries into a new century, Sayarer explores what has changed and what has stayed the same, taking in the history of the Cold War and the colonial conquest that came before it. His journey shows also that global politics can never truly be left behind, introducing him to socialist pensioners who have retired outside of the US and the reach of the FBI, and refugees of war trying to treat their trauma with ayahuasca. Meanwhile, meetings with Palestinian diplomats and a distant diaspora offer a reminder of events that are impossible to escape even half a world away.The altitude of the Andes and Altiplano, and roaring headwinds of Patagonia, make for a seldom easy ten thousand kilometre trip, but Sayarer is propelled by a desire to understand a century and a continent shaped by war and empire, and finds in the pedal strokes of adventure a small act of resistance: the simple freedom of life on two wheels.

AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016"Julian's tales of weaving through the streets of London on two wheels bring to life the gig economy, showing how things have changed in the modern workforce but have also stayed the same. Messengers gives the reader insights on what goes on behind the grand lobbies of the UK's banks and large companies, to see the people who really make business work" Financial TimesMessengers sees Julian Sayarer return to work as a London bicycle courier, after six months cycling around the world. From saddle and kerbside, his stories of delivering flowers to politicians, and administration notices to banks toppled by the financial crisis, make for a social history of a less seen city, written from the perspective of someone stuck in one of London's most insecure and poorly paid jobs.Underneath the deliveries, we meet London's bicycle messengers, a family drawn from jaded graduates, jailbirds and recovering drug addicts. The riders all share their brushes with the law, struggles on the breadline and compete together in alleycat races, forming an unlikely but tender community upon the streets.With a bicycle the one constant that seems to make sense of everything else, Messengers is a two-wheeled portrait of everyday life in a modern city at the start of the twenty-first century."Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE

Winner of the STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR"This book seems prophetic in the wake of Donald Trump and the current controversy over 'fake news'" Daily Telegraph"One can't help thinking that the future of travel writing lies in this adventurous, postmodern genre" Sara WheelerDocumenting Sayarer's real life journey hitchhiking across the US, this fascinating memoir tells the story of the forgotten people lost in their own country, grappling to find a voice in the vast political landscape of the US.Recruited to work on a big documentary project, Julian goes to New York convinced he has hit big time at last. Finding the project cancelled he wanders the city streets and hitchhiking to San Francisco slowly starts to seem like the most sensible option for his career as a travel writer.The story finds an unseen America in rough shape; Julian meets a place of Interstates, forgotten towns and food deserts, always grappling with the scale and energy of the US. Julian tells a tale of Steinbeck, Kerouac and the vast, thundering indifference of American geography and culture at the start of a new century."On the Road for the Occupy Generation" Open Democracy"Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE