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