Alan Bennett, perhaps the capital's most famous cyclist after Tories Cameron and Johnson, once wrote that the world would be a better place if we all switched from four wheels to two. The writer made a Halifax cycling club the subject of his first television play, A Day Out, and still pedals his way round the bosky boulevards near his north London home. But there is concern among some of
his neighbours that Bennett, 73, could go for a burton before his time if he doesn't, well, slow down a bit.
Over to my own, 80-something-year-old great-aunt Ann Kenrick (pictured below), a long-time resident of Primrose Hill, north London, and the (sedate) driver of a silver Renault Clio (steer clear, Bennett!) who emails...
"The other day I picked up a book from the local library and was just returning home in my car, carefully negotiating the narrow streets adjoining Chalcott Square, when a very wobbly bicyclist came down the road opposite at some pace, his coat flapping in the wind. I was about to call out something rude when I recognised Alan Bennett's face under the helmet. It was a good thing I was going so slowly or I might have run over one of Britain's best loved authors!"
A narrow escape (although, knowing Aunty Ann, "something rude" would not have amounted to more than a "look here, Bennett!") but the History Boys scribe fared worse in an earlier incident involving Aunty Ann's friend, Howard. In a diary entry in May of last year, Bennett recounts how a tangling of his coat in his rear wheel sent him tumbling to the Tarmac, where he landed "painfully on his bum".
He writes: "Another passing pensioner [Howard], seeing my plight, goes to a friend's house for a pair of scissors to cut me free, except that the friend is out." Bennett eventually limped home and managed to free the wheel without having to cut his coat. "I imagine in the future," he concludes, "there is going to be more of this."
Let's hope not. Have you had a brush with a biking Bennett, or heard about other mishaps involving the writer? Could his "flapping" coat be to blame? Should we send him a rescue parcel of Lycra cycle wear to prevent future tangles?
Cartoon credit: Camden New Journal

Send him a three-wheeler - can't fall off, can't go too fast, looks very cool.
Posted by: Hobgoblin | Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 10:36 AM
As a passionate cyclist and keen Londoner I was thrilled to hear about someone with my name not living too far away. Would love to get in touch with her...
Posted by: Ann Kenrick | Wednesday, 17 December 2008 at 01:58 PM