{"product_id":"i-went-there-on-my-jim-mackley-9781917130233","title":"I Went There on my Bike","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI Went There on My Bike: The University Years\u003c\/em\u003e continues the remarkable life story begun in \u003cem\u003eA Child in Paradise: Wymeswold 1939-1958\u003c\/em\u003e. In this second volume of his autobiography, \u003cstrong\u003eJim Mackley\u003c\/strong\u003e leaves the quiet Leicestershire village of his youth and ventures into the wider world of post-war Britain and Europe. The years 1958 to 1962 see him exchange familiar country lanes for the bustling streets of Manchester, where he studies French at the University under the guidance of the celebrated medievalist \u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Eugène Vinaver\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith warmth, humour and self-deprecating honesty, Mackley captures the social and cultural shifts of late-1950s Britain - from smoky dance halls and student digs in Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the intellectual life of a university poised on the edge of the Swinging Sixties. His account vividly recalls lectures, friendships, football matches at Old Trafford and Maine Road, and the liberating experience of city life after a sheltered village upbringing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the summer of 1959, Mackley's fascination with France leads to a life-changing adventure: a job in a children's holiday camp deep in the Jura mountains. The following spring, he sets out from Wymeswold on his \"sit-up-and-beg\" bicycle to pedal more than six hundred miles across England and France to \u003cstrong\u003eBesançon\u003c\/strong\u003e, near the Swiss border. His travels - through youth hostels, small towns, and sunlit countryside - reveal the generosity, humour, and resilience of a young man discovering the world for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpanning his university studies, French sojourns, and early encounters with adult responsibility, \u003cem\u003eI Went There on My Bike\u003c\/em\u003e offers a portrait not only of one man's coming-of-age but also of a generation that grew up in the aftermath of war and embraced the new freedoms of the 1960s. Combining memoir, travel writing, and social history, it stands as both a personal and historical document of an era when Britain's horizons - intellectual, cultural, and continental - were expanding fast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jim Mackley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1917130236\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781917130233\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Isengrin Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.63lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.42d","brand":"Jim Mackley","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48520145961215,"sku":"9781917130233","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_3753d782-3a2d-4d16-a716-8513b4fbe684.jpg?v=1778741026","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/i-went-there-on-my-jim-mackley-9781917130233","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}