Twin Tracks: The autobiography - Softcover

[T]he romance of running is at the heart of this very readable story. --The Times One reaches the final page feeling, if anything, even more impressed by Bannister...Twin Tracks is the old-fashioned autobiography of a quintessential Englishman. 4/5 --Nicholas Shakespeare, The Telegraph [A] reflective and readable memoir... In short, he is a hero for our times and - before the term was irredeemably vulgarised - a national treasure. --Michael Beloff, Spectator I recommend this book for readers like me, who rarely delve into sports biographies. I was engrossed from the start, reading it from cover to cover over two days (and nights). --Sylvia Vetta, Oxford Times

The descriptions of his joy in running and the breaking of the barrier, stride by stride, are majestic. --Sunday Times

His welcome open and honest autobiography... There is much else to enjoy in his autobiography, including his poignant return to Oxford as Master of Pembroke College, and his views as the first president of the Sports Council on athletics today, the Olympic legacy and the disasters of drug taking. --Gerald Isaaman, Camden Review

It was a blustery late spring day in 1954 and a young Oxford medical student flung himself over the line in a mile race. There was an agonising pause, and then the timekeeper announced the record: three minutes, fifty-nine point four seconds. But no one heard anything after that first word - 'three'. One of the most iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. To this day, more men have conquered Mount Everest than have achieved what the slender, unassuming student managed that afternoon. Sixty years on and the letters still arrive on Roger Bannister's doormat, letters testifying to the enduring appeal of the four-minute mile and the example it set for the generation of budding athletes who were inspired to attempt the impossible. In this frank memoir, Sir Roger tells the full story of the talent and dedication that made him not just one of the most celebrated athletes of the last century, but also a distinguished doctor, neurologist and one of the nation's best-loved public figures. With characteristically trenchant views on drugs in sport, the nature of modern athletics and record-breaking, the extraordinary explosion in running as a leisure activity, and the Olympic legacy, this rare and brilliant autobiography gives a fascinating insight into the life of a man who has lived life to the fullest.