REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Lois Pryce 13th June 2023 @ The Bear Hotel, Devizes

Revolutionary Ride

Andy Fawthrop

Devizes Arts Festival played a blinder this afternoon by cranking up the outside temperatures to a level suitable for listening to Lois Pryce talking about riding her motorcycle around the heated countryside of Iran in 2013 and 2014. .

The talk/ slide show/ video was entitled “Revolutionary Ride – One Woman’s Solo Motorcycle Journey Around Iran” and it did exactly what it said on the tin.

Lois Pryce, apart from picking banjo on Sunday as part of the bluegrass group The Brothers & The Sisters at The British Lion on Sunday, is a woman of many talents. She’s also an author of three books about her solo adventures in far-flung lands (Alaska to Terra del Fuego, London to Cape Town, and now Iran). She’s also a speaker and freelance writer and broadcaster.

Her latest book, Revolutionary Ride, is a memoir about her experiences in Iran, undertaken in two separate parts in 2013 and 2014. She covered over 3000 miles, did her own basic bike maintenance, camped out many nights, and (most importantly) funded the whole trip herself without the need for sponsors.

She freely admitted that before going, she was largely uneducated about the wider political situation then existing between Iran and the West, did not speak nor understand Farsi (including road signs), didn’t have a visa, didn’t understand the likely problems to be encountered by a lone female riding a motorbike (technically illegal), and that the only maps she had were pre-Revolution. Nothing daunted, she headed into all the technical, cultural, logistical and legal problems, and just kind of “got on with it”.

She drew many parallels and contrasts between the massive amount of hospitality and friendliness she received at a personal level from virtually everyone she met, and the official state-led political situation. She described it as a “chilling regime”, almost entirely cut off from the rest of the world’s infrastructure (internet, banking/ credit systems, foreign imports), with an extreme set of Islamic-led laws, customs and social structures. For women especially, this meant “a life behind the veil”. Nevertheless there was always a thriving “under the counter” culture in everything from motorcycling to music to alcohol.

There were many anecdotes and examples of her “helmet to hijab” existence on the road. And after the break (for book sales and signings), there were plenty of questions from the packed audience.

A highly entertaining session, and well-attended. Which just goes to prove that if you put on something interesting, even in the middle of the afternoon on the hottest day of the year, there are plenty of folk in D-Town with nothing better to do. Build it, they say, and they will come. Another Home Run by DAF!

The Devizes Arts Festival continues at various venues around town until Saturday 17th June.

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk