Twin Tracks

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 iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. 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 inspiring effect it had on a generation. In this frank, truthful memoir, one of the iconic figures of sport tells for the first time the full story of the dedication and talent that led to his unprecedented achievement, and of his professional life as a distinguished doctor and neurologist once his (strictly amateur) athletic career drew to a close.