The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East

by Rebecca Lowe

In The Slow Road to Tehran, journalist Rebecca Lowe describes her solo bicycle ride through 20 countries and 8,000 miles during 2015 and 2016, the dramatic landscapes she passed through, the hardships she endured (in temperatures from -6 to 48˚C), and the people she met, as part of her efforts to truthfully portray the modern Middle East. The Times said it was a “funny and freewheeling account”, noting that Lowe “has a forthright confidence that brings to mind those earlier Middle Eastern adventurers Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell”; despite her parents’ worries (they warn her that they think she “will probably die” shortly before she sets off) traveling as a lone female brings her unusual insights that add weight to a humourous, even Bryson-esque account.