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Running For Their Lives: The Extraordinary Story of Britain’s Greatest Ever Distance Runners

Mark Whitaker

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Published by Yellow Jersey, part of Vintage Publishing

Format: Hardback

£17.99

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Details

EAN: 9780224082587
Published: 5 Apr 2012

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About the book

Synopsis

In 1928 two extraordinary Englishmen competed in an unprecedented and fearsome event - a transcontinental road race across America that required them to run an average of 40 miles for 80 consecutive days. They were to become the most famous long-distance runners in the world: yet history has forgotten them.

Peter Gavuzzi was a young working-class ship's steward, while Arthur Newton was a middle-aged intellectual who had taken up running to make a political point. Though separated by class, education and age, they became close friends and formed a successful business partnership as endurance athletes. They raced in 500-mile relays, in 24-hour events, in snowshoes and against horses; and they became the stars of a craze for endurance events that swept across depression-era North America. But as professional runners they were eschewed by the amateur running elite.

Set against a turbulent backdrop of 1920s South Africa, 1930s Canada, war-torn France and 1950s Britain, Running for Their Lives is a story peopled with remarkable characters, unimaginable feats and tragic twists of fate. More importantly it is a homage to two inspirational and eccentric men who only now receive the recognition they so richly deserve.

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What the critics say

A poignant account of unrecognized achievement… I shall find it hard to forget the two runners in vests and shorts who stand side by side on the dustjacket of this book
- Spectator

Whitaker paints a compelling picture of a world in which the virtues of old-fashioned professionalism and decency overcome class and race barriers... Engaging, surprising and...affecting
- Observer

A timely reminder of the best that the sport can achieve
- The Sunday Times

Well-researched and entertaining… Whitaker’s real achievement is to resurrect for recognition the careers of two genuine, if peripatetic, British sporting heroes
- Times Literary Supplement

The author has done an excellent job in bringing [Newton and Gavuzzi] triumphantly alive from dusty archives with a narrative pace his subjects would surely have admired
- Independent on Sunday

Whitaker has done an excellent job in bringing them [Newton and Gavuzzi] to life
- Independent on Sunday

About the Author

Mark Whitaker is a broadcaster and historian. After a first career as an academic, during which he taught in both London and Tunis, he joined the BBC in 1990. He was a reporter for BBC2's sports documentary series On the Line, and from 1994 to 2002 was a regular presenter of File on 4 on Radio 4. He then became a founding partner of the independent production company Square Dog Radio, which is named after a beloved Bernese Mountain dog. To his great regret he recently had to give up playing cricket. He lives in the West Yorkshire hills with his family and their animals.

Mark Whitaker

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