"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Running the race
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Running the race, John W Keddie, Evangelical Press, Darlington, 2008 ISBN 13 978 0 85234 665 5 (256 pages including 18 pages of athletics results and about 70 photos)
John Keddie establishes his credentials to write the book. He has met DP Thompson, Eric mentor and first biographer. He has met members of Eric's family. He was a consultant on the film, Chariots of Fire. (Page 11-26). What is more he is an historian of Scottish Athletics as well as an ordained minister and a Scot.
His book charts Eric's athletics career in great detail. Pages 31-161 is on Liddell the athlete (162-208 on life after athletics). There is also an appendix of 18 pages setting out details of all his races - much more comprehensive than McCasland. His explanation of the significance of handicap races in that era of athletics was interesting.
There is an interesting discussion of the theology of Sunday (Page 34 and 215), written of course by someone who knew the culture in which Liddell grew up. There is also an interesting discussion of how faith and sport interacted in Eric's life (Page 46-47).
Beyond the factual the author reviews briefly the other books written on Liddell (196ff) and gives a personal assessment of Liddell (213ff).
The book is a must-read only for the scholar of Liddell and the athletic historian. For the general reader it adds little to McCasland.