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No Such Thing As a Free Ride? : A Collection of Hitcher's Tales
What do Mike Leigh and Sir Alan Parker, Eric Burdon, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Arnold Wesker, Sir Max Hastings and Alastair Campbell have in common?
Perhaps surprisingly, together with Nobel prize winners, stand-up comedians, journalists, poets, TV presenters, teachers, hauliers, all in all some 80 notable contributors to this fascinating book, they all hitched in their youth. Each has a traveller's tale to tell and all responded with enthusiasm to Tom and Simon Sykes' request for a short piece relating their adventures.
For many young people in the 1960s and 70s - the heyday of hitching, before the dawn of cheap travel and mass tourism - this form of travel was a key means of local and international mobility. In the era of sexual revolution, political activism and artistic experimentation, it was a fundamental aspect of their personal and social development.
But is there such a thing as a free ride? The hitcher arrived near to or at his or her destination without money changing hands, but the dynamic involved, for both driver and passenger, in negotiating a journey with a never to be seen again stranger, involves all manner of social transactions.
Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes frightening, often inspirational, and always entertaining, No Such Thing As a Free Ride?
Perhaps surprisingly, together with Nobel prize winners, stand-up comedians, journalists, poets, TV presenters, teachers, hauliers, all in all some 80 notable contributors to this fascinating book, they all hitched in their youth. Each has a traveller's tale to tell and all responded with enthusiasm to Tom and Simon Sykes' request for a short piece relating their adventures.
For many young people in the 1960s and 70s - the heyday of hitching, before the dawn of cheap travel and mass tourism - this form of travel was a key means of local and international mobility. In the era of sexual revolution, political activism and artistic experimentation, it was a fundamental aspect of their personal and social development.
But is there such a thing as a free ride? The hitcher arrived near to or at his or her destination without money changing hands, but the dynamic involved, for both driver and passenger, in negotiating a journey with a never to be seen again stranger, involves all manner of social transactions.
Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes frightening, often inspirational, and always entertaining, No Such Thing As a Free Ride?
- GenresTravel
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 12, 2005
40 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Simon Sykes
9 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 26, 2011
This compilation of (mostly) true narratives delves a bit into the hitchhiking mystique, mixing the good with the bad, the tales of good fortune among the incredulous horror stories.
There were a few selections that seemed a bit out of place, but perhaps that's to be expected when the idea of 'place' in this collection is so transient, just as the narrators themselves.
There were a few selections that seemed a bit out of place, but perhaps that's to be expected when the idea of 'place' in this collection is so transient, just as the narrators themselves.
November 12, 2012
This is a edited compilation of hitch hikers tales from famous and well known people. There is a right mix of styles and lengths of pieces as you would expect, from a paragraph to several pages.
Overall it is not too bad, and the sectioning mostly makes sense, but these could have been reduced to three or four.
Overall it is not too bad, and the sectioning mostly makes sense, but these could have been reduced to three or four.
November 16, 2013
Oh, some of these were super outrageous and others totally cracked me up. Gotta love good ol' hitchhiking stories. It's a shame that people are super timid about picking them up nowadays.
June 2, 2016
An amusing read which brought back many memories of hitching around the UK and Europe during the '60s.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews