| Jools Walker | |
| Genre: | Non-fiction |
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Jools Walker is an English bicyclist, TV presenter and author. Her first book, Back in the Frame,[1] was published by Little, Brown Book Group in May 2019 and she is represented by Bell Lomax Moreton.[2]
Walker grew up in Canning Town, east London with the first bike she owned being a 'metallic green trike'.[3] Later, she started riding a BMX her older brother restored and taught her to ride.[4] However, she says that the 'disgusting comments' she got riding her bike to school made her cycle less and less, eventually stopping in her late teens.[5]
Walker started her blog Velo-City Girl in 2010 after purchasing 'the bike of my dreams', a Pashley Princess using the Cycle to Work scheme her employer, the University of East London, offered. In 2012 she joined cycle clothing firm Vulpine as the operation's manager[6] and started presenting on ITV4's The Cycle Show,[7] with Walker leading on features including the annual vintage cycling festival, l'Eroica festival as well as appearing on the BBC's Newsnight, on a feature on cycling culture.[8] She was featured in the online edition of La Fuga, the cycling industry periodical, in one of their 'Industry Portrait' features.[9] In 2015 she was highlighted as one of Bike Biz's '100 Women of the Year.[10]
In 2018 she started work with the London Bike Kitchen on a regular Women of Colour cycling meet-up[11] after realising that one of the barriers for her to starting cycling again was not seeing 'anyone I identified with'.[12] She now speaks regularly of the need for more diversity in cycling at all levels and of the barriers that keep prevent Women of Colour from accessing cycling.[13]
In 2016 Walker suffered a stroke[14] and Back in the Frame describes Walker's life with depression.[15] She described its description of her experiences in an interview with The Guardian, saying:, "I’m not trying to be the poster child for what cycling can do for you, but in my book I try to use the experiences that I’ve had on and off a bike, and turn it all into a positive.[16] ” In May 2019 an extract from Back in the Frame was published in The Daily Telegraph.[17]