Dicks is a cycle-racing fanatic, a former rider whose career ended abruptly at the Rome Olympics when he got the worst of an argument with Lars Pederson, a 22- stone Swedish shot-putter.
In Spain for the world championships thirteen years later, Dicks meets Pederson again — and his new wife Ingrid, a Scandinavian blonde who threatens to distract even the most committed enthusiast from the events on the circuit.
When a Russian cyclist disappears, and the Pedersons seem to know more than they are telling, Dicks finds himself swept along by a tide of events more fast-moving and more dangerous than any cycle race.
In A Curl Up and Die Day the background of northern Spain and the cycling championships is strikingly realised in an emotional and gripping tale.
Praise for Frank Dickens
‘[Dickens] has created an original and immensely appealing hero’ – Peter Owen
Frank Dickens was born in Hornsey, London 1932.
Dickens left school at sixteen and began working for his father, a painter-decorator. A self-taught artist, he began working as a cartoonist in 1959 and has since won eight 'Cartoonist of the Year' awards for his Bristow series. In 1971 he made an introduction into stage work and in 1999 adapted Bristow into a six-part series for BBC Radio 4. Dickens has also published twelve children's books and two thrillers.
