It’s **PUBLICATION DAY**

Rather than just exhorting people to buy my book – though do feel free to – I thought I’d briefly explain how on earth a political journalist ended up writing a book about the global crisis of physical inactivity.

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It almost happened by accident. Writing an earlier book about cycling I researched the public health arguments and stumbled across this normalised health crisis that few people talked about – inactivity. 100,000 deaths a year in the UK alone – one in six of the total.

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Some of the stats are genuinely jaw-dropping. 80% of UK kids are so inactive they risk their long-term health. 25% of adults barely move at all. About 20% of adults say they *never* walk for 20 minutes or longer at a time. Globally, a third of adults move too little.

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This is serious stuff, with big implications. Researching the book I spent a day with two consultants at King’s College hospital (pre-Covid). They both agreed: without change, long-term ill-health from inactivity means the NHS as we know could eventually become unviable

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But this isn’t because people have suddenly become lazier. Our environment is created to make everyday exertion more difficult. To take one example, think of hotels or office blocks where the lifts are gleaming and obvious, but stairs are hidden, windowless and unwelcoming.

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The answer isn’t about exercise, or sport. That's great, if you do it. But not enough people do. The only population-wide solution is to embed more movement and exertion into people’s lives, make it routine, almost forgettable; replace what has been lost over the decades.

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One of the most fascinating people I met researching the book was Jan Gehl, the now 84yo Danish architect and pioneer of liveable, human-friendly towns and cities. His mantra is that streets should “invite” people to walk, cycle and mingle.

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I also learned other positive things, like the truly amazing impact of being active. Studies show people who cycle to work are 40% less likely to die young than those who don’t, even accounting for all other factors. Imagine packaging that effect into a tablet.

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The dose–response curve for activity is also amazing. Even being moderately active – like a brisk walk – for ten minutes at a time can have an immediately beneficial effect on everything from blood pressure to glucose sensitivity, even cognitive function.

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One of the most amazing things I learned is that the connection between active living and better health was only made in 1953. The man who proved it – below – Dr Jerry Morris, deserves a book all of his own. In mine, he gets a chapter.

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I learned so much more writing this book, including the way obesity and inactivity are parallel but separate health crises; the same for too much sitting down; and that some countries, like Finland and Slovenia, take inactivity *much* more seriously than the UK.

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I also learned some things about myself, not least that I often sit down far too long, and that while my routine of walking and cycling keeps me much healthier than average, I was no longer the indestructible, lithe figure of my long-ago days as a cycle courier.

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I could go on , but for that you should read the book. It’s not a textbook, or a self-help book. But it is a guide to this largely unremarked new world, and as much as anything else it’s a love letter to one of the things that make us most human.

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Finally: I spoke to lots of much cleverer people than me for the book, so thanks to some of them who are on Twitter, eg @chrissiesmiles @xandvt @Chris_Boardman @tomwatson @Elaine_Wyllie @timrgill @AndyBurnhamGM @Jeremy_Hunt & lots of others.