Running is more than just a sport. It is also a magical way to get offline and recover some of the joy that modern life increasingly denies us. In Footnotes, Vybarr Cregan-Reid sets out to discover why running means so much to so many. He embarks on a journey that takes him back to nature and across continents, through fascinating terrains and to the world's most advanced running laboratories and research centres. He discovers the horrifying history of treadmills, how running makes us more intelligent and even why our bodies look the way they do. Calling upon debates in literature, philosophy and biology to explore our simple desire to run, Footnotes will inspire you to get off the sofa and head for the hills.
Vybarr Cregan-Reid is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Kent. He has a popular blog, psychojography.com, and has written on running for the Guardian, Telegraph, Literary Review and the BBC. He has also written numerous articles and essays for academic journals and a book on Victorian culture
"Insightful and intoxicating. Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book makes you take your shoes off and run through a world of ideas about nature."
– Lynne Truss
"Delightful"
– The Times Literary Supplement
"Footnotes is a blazing achievement."
– Kate Norbury, Caught by the River
"Few have done it so artfully and completely."
– Oliver Balch, Literary Review
"Here is a book in which the striding energy of the prose matches its subject."
– Iain Sinclair