Events

James Briggs is a music and travel writer who’s written for the Guardian, the Irish Times and Cycling Weekly, and is the author of From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads: A Bowie Odyssey. Born to Yorkshire parents, but growing up in Somerset, he’s equally comfortable with ‘eh ups’ and ‘wassons,’ improvising in London where he now lives.

James Briggs had never known what David Bowie’s Life on Mars? meant. And twenty-five years later with a career stealing his soul, a relationship in stasis and a hairline in furious retreat, life on earth had him cornered. So when a lightning bolt of inspiration strikes, he leaves everything behind to cycle one of the song’s lyrics, ‘From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads’ to discover what life, love and Life on Mars? really mean.

What followed was life-affirming, inspirational and often hilarious. Criss-crossing Europe, he visited French chateaus where Bowie recorded, Spanish Olympic stadiums he played, former communist states where his music was banned, and the Berlin Wall he helped topple – all while navigating angry Soviet ballerinas, suspicious village mayors, and an irate Cliff Richard fan.

James found kindred spirits and a new love (and occasionally hatred) for cycling as he discovered what happens when, instead of following the crowd, you follow the lyrics