Following the Sun: A Bicycle Pilgrimage From Andalusia to the Hebrides

John Hanson Mitchell, editor of "Sanctuary," the journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, begins riding a 40-year-old-plus Peugeot bicycle north on the first day of spring in southern Spain. The hopeful destination (a 1,500 mile trek) is to arrive in the Hebrides (Scotland) on the first day of summer. "Following the Sun" offers more than bicycle-travel stories. A history of sun worshipers through the ages such as the Aztecs, Incas and several other sun cultures are discussed. A delightful and eccentric bunch of characters along Mitchell's route lighten the didactic tone of the book. A speaker from the Flat Earth Society preaches in a confident manner to an ever-growing hostile crowd in Hyde Park. An overly protective bed and breakfast manager repeatedly dissuades Mitchell from riding to Scotland. She shouts, "You'll die of exposure in the empty wind like a poor lamb. No one in their right mind ventures out to the Hebrides . . . You'll be speared and eaten." Mitchell's view from the bicycle seat is brought into one's imagination easily thanks to the author's keen eye for detail. We also experience his roadside pasture rest stops; he writes, "sliced my `tomates,' onions, and sardines, tore off a tranche of bread, and uncorked a bottle of Sancerre." One empathizes with the enjoyment of such a simple meal after having taken part of the arduous bike-ride with the writer rider. "Following The Sun" proves to be a contagious read; an immense sense of passion flows through each page. Wanderlust will even ignite the soul of timid travelers to ramble through the book as if competing in the "Tour de France." Bohdan Kot

John Hanson Mitchell recounts his travels by bike from Southern Spain through France and England finally ending up in Scotland all the while musing on the sun and the indelible mark it has left on our culture. The book is part travelogue, part philosophical musing, part anthropological study, part religious mediation. The accounts of the people and places he encountered are compelling and his descriptions of the food he ate along the way made me very hungry! It all adds up to a thought-provoking and entertaining read. A couple of quibbles: It would have been great if there was a map included with the book that showed the route traveled. Mitchell writes eloquently about the geography and it's hard to visualize it without having a map handy (unless of course you are very familiar with the regions he's writing about). I also found it somewhat disturbing that it wasn't clear when exactly this journey took place. The book came out last year or the year before,but it seems that the actual trip took place long ago.

Whoever wrote that review that you say was in Publisher's Weekly obviously never read anything by John Hanson Mitchell! They must be confusing him with some other author. Mitchell's writing is always so good-hearted and generous--the opposite of caustic! Following the Sun is so rich--a journey on two levels; a review of virtually everything under the sun, from myth to bird migration to the solar origins of Christianity. But it's also a delightful bicycle ride--all the way from the south of Spain to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland with journeys throughout the vineyards of Bordeaux, the chateaux of the Loire in France and the stone circles of the British Isles in between. Mitchell always has a way of falling in with eccebntric types, as I've seen in his other books eg. Ceremonial Time (a 15,000 year history of one square mile of land)and The Wildest Place on Earth (about Italian gardens and the American wilderness). He seems to be able to mix arcane facts about the setting of sugar in winegrapes, and the perversities of Roman emperors and the like with a sharp ear for story. There are some great ones here with some rollicking Old World characters. The author followed back roads all the way, and he did it before the establishment of the European Union when all the food was better, the wine sweeter, and the stories deeper. And Mitchell's writing style, lyrical and smooth, is a salve for whatever ails you. What a pleasure!