In 1954 Roger Bannister shot to world fame when he became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, a feat which was seen as emulating the first conquest of Everest the year before.
Bannister was a superb athlete, but more than that he was also a thinker, a writer and a philosopher who defended the ideals of amateur sport.
He went on to become a doctor, a leading neurologist, and the master of an Oxford college.
He devoted much of his later life to encouraging sport, for its benefits to the individual and to society as a whole, and he warned against the dangers of commercialising the Olympic sports.
Roger Bannister Athlete and Philosopher
This is the first book to analyse Bannister’s life and character in depth. It is richly illustrated with over 100 photographs, many of them published here for the first time.
Pen to Paper
