BOOKS/CULTURE/MOVIES
TRIPLE SPEEDWAY World Champion and
former captain of the Great British
speedway team, Tai Woffinden is one of the
sport's biggest stars.
Following in his late father's footsteps,
Tai Woffinden made his name as a notable
Speedway rider. Known for his speed on
the tracks and his quirky tattoos,
Woffinden is a popular figure within the
sport. He has over 55,000 followers on
Twitter, where he posts frequent pictures
of himself and fiancee Faye, whom he
married in late 2016.
With a vast array of titles to his name,
including youngest ever World Champion,
achieved at the age of twenty-three,
Woffinden has come a long way from his
Scunthorpe roots. However, he has not
been without his share of struggles. In
2010, Woffinden lost his father to cancer,
which, combined with internal issues
within his team, resulted in a difficult
season. His autobiography provides an
eye-openinginsightintothelifeof oneof
speedway'smostexcitingtalents.
— Aaron Flanagan'CHAPPELL IS a gifted storyteller' -
Observer.
A London cycle courier with a taste for
adventure, Emily Chappell entered an
extraordinary new race - The
Transcontinental - in which riders must
find their own way, entirely unassisted,
across Europe in the shortest time
possible.
On her second attempt, she won the
women's event, covering nearly 4,000
miles in 13 days and ten hours, sleeping
in short bursts wherever exhaustion took
her. In the aftermath of a win that
troubled as much as pleased her she
worked with Mike Hall, the founder of the
race, until his tragic death on the road.
Where There's a Will is a book about a
normal person finding the capacity to do
something extraordinary; the paradoxes
of comradeship, competition, vulnerability
and will and the shock of grief, combined
in a beautifully written and very human
story. — Aaron Flanagan“THETHREADof anideadangleditself
infrontof mea yearagoandI pulledon
it, andkeptpulling.”Theidea?Tohike,
a long,longway.ForLauraWaters,a
longwaymeansthesix-month3000km
TeAraroaTrail,gemstoneof New
Zealand’strailnetwork.Asit turnedout,
shedidit alone.
Laurais nodoubta familiarfaceto
Outdoorreaders,who’llrecallher
perenigrationsascloseasFraserIsland
andasfarawayasJordan.Butonce
upona timeLauraleda relatively
ordinary,city-boundexistence.Thatis,
beforeexitinga toxicrelationshipand
succumbingto theurgefora more
meaningfullife.Hencethefeeling‘this
couldbeme’.
Herusualstyle—colloquialyetpoetic
—is onshowhereinfullforce,onlythe
dialhasbeencrankeduponthe
confessionalaspectof herwriting.This
timeeverythingis outintheopen
—there’sall-to-familiarstruggleswittily
depicted,andsomestruggles,both
physicalandpersonal,thatmanyof us,
sofarconfinedto shortermulti-day
walks,maynotanticipate.
—SamRichardsHiking the
Overland Track
Warwick Sprawson
Cicerone,
$39.99Bewildered
LauraWaters
AffirmPress,
$29.99Where There’s
a Will
Emily Chappell
Pursuit, $32.99Raw Speed
Tai Woffinden
Allen & Unwin,
$39.99PLANNING A TREK can be challenging,
sometimes prohibitively so. Often it feels
like you’re walking into the great
unknown, with reality hidden behind a
bunch of marketing f luff. Well, with the
Overland Track in Tassie, you have to
venture into the dark no more.
Melbournite Warwick Sprawson, who
has spent time hiking in all parts of the
world (from Mexico to Ireland), studying
land conservation and management, and
working in bush regeneration, has now
turned his hand to constructingan
informativeguideontheOverlandTrack,
downto thesmallestdetails.
Sprawson’s Hiking the Overland Track
leads you step by step, from booking and
permits, staying in huts, the ideal time of
year, accomodation at the trek’s start and
finish, packing requirements, navigation,
side trips, and what to do in an
emergency, while also detailing the day to
day itinerary and walking route. The
compact book would fit on your pack and
add not just reassurance but another level
of depth to your experience thanks to its
handy info on the history, f lora, fauna and
landscape of the region. — Sam Richards92 / Outdoor