Nelly the Cyclatron was my travelling companion during the awesome and decade-defining summer of 2005. We travelled 6,500 kilometres together through nine countries, during which time I fixed 21 of her punctures and 17 of her spokes.

Over that 150-day period, we slept in a mosquito-infested French paddock; sunbathed beside the Pont du Gard; read the Book of Psalms in the Italian wilderness; composed new verses to old folk songs in a Croatian forest; and, on the banks of the Danube, counted galaxies in the sky in the dead of night.

It would be difficult to argue that Nelly’s intellectual or artistic impact on the book has been equal to those of the reviewers and consultants listed above (given that Nelly is a bicycle), but let’s just say I couldn’t have done it without her.

Nelly lives in Istanbul with her companion, Metin, also known as ‘The Happy Hajj’.