Mr B's micro-press publishes Sayarer as first original title

Bookseller Nic Bottomley's publishing outfit Fox, Finch & Tepper has signed and published its first original book, an account of an impromptu biking adventure by award-winning travel-writer Julian Sayarer.

The micro-press is a "little-sister" company to Bottomley's Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, and is comprised of the bookshop staff who also publish. Bottomley said of the press' ethos: "We purposefully are not limiting in what we publish, as long as we love the books and want them to find a wider audience. They invariably do have a strong sense of place thought, if there’s one common thread."

Iberia is the press' first original non-fiction title. Bottomley obtained world rights directly from Sayarer, and edited the text over the summer this year after hearing the author wanted a "swifter" publication process. The cover artwork is by Tessimo Mahuta, and printed by T J International, with copies available to purchase at high street retailers and on online. 

The book recounts the journey Sayarer made from Lisbon towards Barcelona during the pandemic, on a blue bicycle he named Miles. "Finding himself in Lisbon amidst a pandemic, Julian Sayarer decides simply to ride," the synopsis explains. "Through hazy landscapes and on baked roads, he pedals east. During long hours in the saddle, his thoughts traverse matters big and small – hopping from post-colonial culpability to the supremacy of an orange picked at the roadside. 

"Across 900 miles of sun-drenched olive groves, vast mountainscapes, and dormant towns glimpsed through driving rain, Sayarer’s journey is punctuated by fleeting, beautiful moments of human connection. Iberia is a celebration of a shared humanity and community found in a uniquely fragile time."

Sayarer is the previous holder of the world record for circumnavigating the world by bike, an experience he explored in his debut book Life Cycles (John Blake). 

Fox, Finch & Tepper has previously reissued What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges, The Story of Mr Sommer by Patrick Suskind, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor, Tepper Isn’t Going Out by Calvin Trillin, Next Step in the Dance by Tim Gautreaux and The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland.