On the eve of his appearance at the Intelligence Squared cycling festival, celebrated novelist and cultural commentator Will Self speaks to NOWNESS of his love affair with the “inert lump of metal.” Having converted to the train-handy fold-up Brompton bicycle nine years ago, the Cock and Bull writer is evangelical about the nifty British machine, lauding it as the optimum way to orient oneself to a new town or city. The proud owner of several sets of wheels, Self rhapsodizes on the “beautiful Zen experience” of riding a fixed-gear, and the triumph of the human spirit embodied in the bike. “I cycle alone. I walk alone. It’s not really convenient to cycle with other people,” the notoriously sardonic author muses. “Do you want to just spend your time looking at someone else’s bum, or do you want to encourage someone else to just look at your bum?” Appearing at the debate alongside fellow writers Bella Bathurst and Geoff Dyer, Self is set to provoke the kind of gloriously freewheeling discussion that tends to follow him around.

For more information on the Intelligence Squared Cycling Festival at the Royal Geographical Society on Thursday 8th click here.