The Greatest: the Times and Life of Beryl Burton

by William Fotheringham

First biography of Britain's greatest ever cyclist, a woman who won seven world titles and almost 100 national titles and who, in 1967, was one of a handful of women to claim an all-comers endurance record, faster than the men's record at the time.

Genres: Cycling, Biography

250 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2019

Reviews

[Brendan Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beryl Burton is undoubtedly the greatest cyclist I had never heard of. Her palmarès is up there with anyone else and includes 7 world championship gold medals. (As an aside, I absolutely love that when you google palmarès the first link is to Sean Kelly’s wiki page). Other ridiculous achievements including breaking the men’s 2-hour time trial record and basically every women’s record you can think of.

William Fotheringham’s work will be well known to any fan of cycling books (along with his brother Alasdair). Two of his earlier books, Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson and Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi remain among my absolute favourites.

The Greatest is therefore that brilliant combination of the perfect biographer for a fascinating subject. Fotheringham tells the full story of Burton’s life in detail for the first time. She emerges as incredibly driven and forthright – someone who wanted to compete against and to beat all comers, whether that be men or her own daughter! She managed to overcome a serious childhood illness and compete at the highest level despite holding down a job that required hard manual labour.

Like all of Fotheringham’s biographies, The Greatest is exceptionally well researched and paints a clear, uncompromising picture of its subject and the times she lived in. He also covers the sexism Burton and any other female cyclists faced during the time.

Ultimately, The Greatest is an attempt to give Burton the historical recognition she deserves. It’s highly readable and a welcome collection to any cycling fans library.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very slow to get started, because the data is of no interest to me - if I'd had another book around, it would have been a DNF. But, I stuck with it, and gradually a picture emerged of a truly impressive athlete and a shocking portrait of the casual sexism that prevailed so very very recently.

She seems to have been equally impressive and tricky. Much was made of the 11+ exam - did Bainbridge herself let this one event really shape her life so much? So many questions at the end... I'm curious now to see the author's take on Merckx - BB seems to have been in the same league, so I'll be curious to know if quite so much attention is given to his domestic arrangements and how he functioned as a father - I'm completely in the dark about these parts of his life!

The account of denying Denise a lift to the start of a race in which they'd be competitors was quite the insight.

[Martin Mccann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long overdue biography that balances the story of the brilliance of BB on a bike with the impact it had on her life outside of cycling (such as it was). Fotheringham tries to identify what made her so driven and so unwilling to even contemplate defeat, with performances inspired not just by physical ability but an almost pathological fear of failure.

[Claire Bate-Roullin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m no Beryl Burton but reading about her life and long long list of cycling accomplishments would probably inspire anyone to try a little harder.

[M. R. Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book to read. As an active cyclist and time trials rider living in Yorkshire and just three years younger than Beryl Burton, I found the book very interesting giving a good account of the world of time trial riding in England. The people and events named were known to me from reading and following the sport in Cycling Weekly.