Emma Ayres

After having done a long distance ride myself last year of 3,800K, I can totally appreciate the scale of this trip at 16,000 kilometres. Cycling on your own from England to Hong Kong is not for the faint-hearted, so stand tall and take a bow Emma Ayres, hell stand tall and take two bows! I loved reading this story and found myself mentally pedalling the roads with her. At times I glossed over the technical writing about her music as it just left me floundering but, when she wrote descriptively about the music she loves to hear and play, it was a sheer joy to read. There are some wonderfully constructed word pictures. A companion CD is available which is a lovely idea I think, as many pieces of music were mentioned. This amazing journey was the making and breaking and re-making of the author. She met many people, some helpful some down right dangerous. Cadence is more than a bit of armchair-travel, it’s more than a memoir, it’s more than the combined sum of all its parts…it’s epic, and Emma Ayres is a legend!… (mehr)

Cadence is ostensibly a travel memoir, but it covers a lot of ground within its seemingly narrow construct of chronicling her year-long bicycle journey. The ground it covers, besides the story of her travel, which is exciting enough given the regions she rode though, includes her childhood, her reflections on her life as a musician, and her analyses of classical music. Some of her technical descriptions went over my head, but I found her discussions of composers to be not only accessible and eye-opening, but deeply interesting. And it’s all told with a thoughtful philosophical underpinning. For my full review, please see: https://whisperinggums.com/2016/01/15/emma-ayres-cadence-travels-with-music-revi...… (mehr)