Daisy, Daisy: A journey across America on a bicycle

by Christian Miller

Recounts the journey by bicycle of the U.S.A. from coast to coast by Christian Miller, an Englishwoman.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Christian Miller, the youngest of a family of six, was born in 1920. Brought up on her father’s estate in the Scottish Highlands, she was educated by governesses. After the death of her father, the estate was inherited by her elder brother, and the rest of the family moved to London, where - at eighteen - she became a debutante. During WWII, having started as an aircraft fitter working on heavy bombers, she became a technical adviser in the Ministry of Production.

She married during the war and had two daughters, and it was not until the 1960s that she started writing, beginning with short stories, which were widely translated. Her first novel, The Champagne Sandwich, was published in 1969, and was followed in 1980 by Daisy Daisy, which told the story of a bicycle ride across America which she did on her own when she was 58. A Childhood in Scotland first appeared in The New Yorker, and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award in 1982.

Reviews

[Kelly Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Totally charming with an unbiased approach to everyone she met in her travels.
I read it in 1989 during my first maternity leave,age 19,
It gave me hope that perhaps I could be an adventurous woman in my 50's, thus content to give over my young adult years to family life.
It did, and I have!

[Caroline Herbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a story--a 50-something British grandmother decides to go on her own adventure, bicycling across the U.S. in the 1970s. She does exactly that--from the moment she gets off the plane in Virginia (Dulles), she immediately gets on "Daisy", the fold-away bike that she checked with her (minimal) luggage. Wanting to start at the Atlantic Ocean, she starts riding East (hard to imagine on today's traffic-clogged roads) and ends up on her first night in Jamestown. From there we are treated to her impressions of the landscape and the stories of the people she meets. Continually surprised by the openness and friendly hospitality of us Americans, she finds herself invited in to share meals or to enjoy a real bed when she knocks on doors asking to pitch her tent on people's land, for example. She does camp out plenty, though, and ends up catching rides when the going gets tough (i.e. when it's snowing in the Rockies). For the most part she seems unconcerned for her safety, which makes me wonder how different a trip like this would be today, if it were still possible. Miller's observations of our country are very entertaining, and I found it particularly interesting that she had none of the locals' baggage about race and class. For example, she stops at the home of an African American family in Virginia asking to pitch her tent, and it takes her a while to realize how amazed they are at her presence and the fact that she stopped at their house. That kind of "stranger-in-a-strange-land" perspective add another layer of interest to what is already a page-turning adventure story.

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of the wonderful A Scottish Childhood is a grandmother now and no longer at the beck and call of children, parents, et al., so she decides to bicycle across America by herself. Her folding bike, nicknamed Daisy, takes her from Yorktown, VA to Oregon one summer in the late seventies. Her willingness to tackle whatever comes her way is refreshing, though she does admit to the need to curl up in a motel from time to time to rest after meeting so many new people. Only a Brit would find water meadows and sculleries as she travels through the US. Minor but charming.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea of taking a whimsical bike ride across the country is inspiring, but nothing else in this book was worth the paper it was printed on. She gives extensive detail on some things and absolutely no detail on other places she visits. A lot of facts I could discern were wrong which made me question everything else she wrote. The chronology and geography were obviously incorrect at times. The book never even mentions how long it took her to complete her vacation.