Rob Penn

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Robert "Rob" Penn (born 1967) [1] is a British writer, photographer and broadcaster. He is a frequent columnist in UK national newspapers and has written widely on such subjects as cycling, travel, British woodlands and life in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Penn was born in Birmingham and grew up in Wales and London [5] before studying history at the University of Bristol. [6]

He has cycled around the world and across Wales in the dark. [7] [8]

His latest book, Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure was published by Particular Books/Penguin in February 2021. His book, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees was BBC Radio Four 'Book of the Week' in December 2015. [9] His other books include The Wrong Kind of Snow – a survey of the British obsession with the weather, co-authored with Antony Woodward – and It's All About the Bike, which documents his worldwide search for the perfect custom bike, while narrating the social history of the bicycle. It's All About the Bike was a Sunday Times bestseller in the UK; it has been translated into thirteen languages.

Television

In 2010, he wrote and presented the television documentary Ride of my Life: the Story of the Bicycle, based on his book It's All About the Bike, which was broadcast on BBC4 and BBC2. [10] In 2012, he presented the six-part series Tales from the Wild Wood [11] for BBC4, about British woodlands.

In 2013, he cycled 1,200 km through the heart of the Amazon rainforest with former England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff for the two-part Sky1 documentary Flintoff's Road to Nowhere. [12]

In 2014, he travelled round Britain in a fish and chip van with Flintoff, making a six-part series for Sky1. "Lord of the Fries" was broadcast in February and March 2015. [13] The second series, Flintoff Fries Again was broadcast on Sky 1 in February and March 2016.

Publications

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References

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