An Athletics Compendium

L. Literature # Novels Abercrombie, Barbara 1 Run for your life. London: MacDonald, 1984. 249p ISBN: 0-356-10477-X Suspense story of a woman novelist who uses marathon running as an inspiration wforirting. Ashton, Elizabeth 2 The golden girl. London: Mills and Boon, 1978. 188p; pbk ISBN: 0-263-72636-3 BL: H.78/855 Romantic noveal bout a womanathlete. Atkinson, Hugh 3 The Games / research abnadckground by Phillip Knightley. London: Cassell, 1967. 442p BL: Nov.11105 Centred on aBritish marathonrunner, this 'ais purely fictional projection of what could happen to the Olympic movement ifpolitics andmoney were allowed to erode the spirit in which the Games weorreiginally conceived'. Barling Tom 4 The Olympic sleeper. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979. 218p ISBN: 0-413-46010-X BL: Nov.38621 Barnes, Linda 5 Dead heat. London: Severn House, 1984. 194p ISBN: 0-7278-1050-2 BL: Nov.52810 Crime novel involving murder inthe BostonMarathon. i.London: Macmillan, 1994. 201p ISBN: 0-333-63001-7 BL: Nov.1995/169 Crime novel featuring cross-countraynd road walking. Booth, Patrick John 7 Sprint from the bell. London: Collins, 1966. 254p BL: Nov.7778 Bragg, Melvyn 8 Josh Lawton. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1972. 193p ISBN: 0-436-06708-0 BL: Nov. 18457 The main character ais Lakeland fell-runner, though the athletics content is slight. Collins, Wilkie 9 Man and wife: anovel. London: Ellis, 1870. 3 vols. BL:12628.bb.5 The master of Victorian melodrama was one of the first novelists utose athletics as a thMemane.and lA/ifedescribes the fortunes Goefoffrey Delamayn, a champion long distance runner, and is a bitter condemnation of the sport which had been taken up so enthusiastically in England in the mid 18>60s. As a social documenthe novel is importanfto, r it presents fears and superstitions about the dangers of running which were seriously discussed at thetime. It also gives a unique description of the atmosphere and scene ina stadium of the period, and its delineation of Perry, the athlete'sprofessional trainerm, ay well be based onNat Perry, the mofastmous English coach of the nineteenth century. Adult Fiction Bell, Pauline 6 Downhill to death [ 157 ]