Everything else

If you really need to know… over the decades, I have been a hod carrier, dishwasher, waiter, photographer, TV presenter, journalist and author. In my late twenties, I gave up a career as a lawyer and spent three years cycling 40,000km around the world. I have ridden a bicycle in over 70 countries on five continents.

Journalism

I began a freelance career in 1999 and my journalism—features, book reviews, reportage, travel writing, opinion pieces and cycling columns—has appeared in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Times, Times, Daily Telegraph, Washington Post, Stern, 1843 Magazine, Hindustan Times and Conde Nast Traveller, as well as a score of cycling publications you are unlikely to have heard of. My writing has also been published in anthologies on cycling, bicycles, trees and forests, and I have lectured on writing at institutions like the Arvon Foundation. My books have been translated into 16 languages.

Talks

I have given hundreds of talks about bicycles, bread, cycling round the world, the British weather, the ash tree, our woods and forests, tree planting and why the compelling challenge to restore nature is all that remains, in bookshops, village halls, grand theatres and conference suites the length and breadth of Britain and the USA. I have made dozens of appearances on radio and TV to discuss the same subjects. I have also appeared on stage at numerous literary festivals, while I interview authors and chair literary events at Hay Festival.

TV Documentaries

For several years, I wrote and presented documentaries for the BBC including Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle and Tales From the Wildwood ('Understated gem' – Independent, 'Charming' – Guardian, 'Delightful series' - Daily Telegraph) and Sky, including Flintoff’s Road to Nowhere (‘Penn’s earnest, savvy excitement and Flintoff’s grumpy Northern charm… make for a brilliant hour of tell’ – Times) and Lord of the Fries).

I worked with several production companies over this time, including Indus Films and Plum Pictures.

I grew up in the Isle of Man, studied history at Bristol University, Law at the College of Law and photojournalism at London College of Printing. I live in the Black Mountains, southeast Wales with twelve bicycles, two spaniels and a collection of axes. I cycle across a heather moor on a mountain bike to get to work. When I go to work, that is.

Cycling

Cycling is still a huge part of my life. Today, I ride a bike to keep fit, to bathe in air and sunshine, to go shopping, to get to work, sometimes for work, to escape when the world is breaking my balls, to savour the physical and emotional fellowship of riding with friends, to stay sane, for fun, occasionally to impress someone, to explore, to scare myself and to hear my kids laugh. It’s a broad church of practical, physical and emotional reasons with one unifying thing. It’s a broad church of practical, physical and emotional reasons with one unifying thing.

It is difficult not to be swept along by Penn’s enthusiasm … He writes with authority, humour and refreshing candour.”

Charles Starmer-Smith

Sunday Telegraph