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The Vintage Podcast, June: Sport

Winner of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Biography of the Year

Unbreakable

A story that defies belief: National Velvet meets Downton Abbey with a splash of The Leopard.

[An] astonishing story… beautifully pieced together by journalist Richard Askwith… Unbreakable is…much more than simply the story of a horse race. It is also a compelling insight into the fading days of the Habsburg empire and the rise of the women’s liberation movement between the two wars… exceptional…[and] heart-stopping reading which left me in tears

[An] extraordinary story… Askwith’s compelling book, as much about 20th-century history and women’s equality as it is about racing, is a fitting tribute to a truly remarkable and courageous woman

Askwith… writes beautifully… One of the most remarkable racing stories I have ever had the pleasure of reading

[This] thoroughly researched, deeply moving account does justice to a remarkable life

An inspiring tale of an indomitable spirit

This is a truly great story which has the reader rooting for a 41-year-old woman of whom most will have never heard

Lata Brandisová’s story is remarkable… Stirring, vivid stuff

Askwith’s book has all the ingredients of a compulsive page-turner… Lata Brandisova was one of the most famous sporting figures in Czechoslovakia… Largely forgotten…Askwith has hunted down leads to present her story in compelling style

A great story, one worthy of the silver screen

UK Press Syndication, *Books of the Year*

A fabulously written book about a remarkable lady. A must-read for National Hunt enthusiasts

Astonishing, inspiring, sad… I found it utterly compelling

The Czech nation will surely feel that he has done [Lata Brandisova] justice.

Richard Askwith has been a journalist for over 40 years. He has written six previous books, including his modern classic on fell running, Feet in the Clouds, which won the Best New Writer category at the British Sports Book Awards and was shortlisted for the William Hill and Boardman Tasker prizes, and he is now one of the UK's most celebrated writers on running. Running Free was shortlisted for the Thwaites-Wainwright Prize, and his evocative biography of Emil Zátopek, Today We Die A Little, was shortlisted in the Cross Sports Book Awards. His most recent book, Unbreakable: the Countess, the Nazis and the World's Most Dangerous Horse Race, won Biography of the Year at the Telegraph Sports Book Awards in 2020.

Discover a story that defies belief: National Velvet meets Downton Abbey with a splash of Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa's The Leopard. 
 
* WINNER OF THE 2020 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR * 
 
* LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR * 
 
Czechoslovakia, October 1937. Vast crowds have gathered to watch the Grand Pardubice steeplechase, Europe's most blood-curdling sporting test of manhood. With war looming, the race has a brutal political significance. The Nazis have sent the SS's all-conquering paramilitary horsemen to crush - yet again - the 'subhuman Slavs'. But Lata Brandisova, a silver-haired countess on a little golden mare, has other ideas... 
 
'Heart-stopping reading' Clover Stroud, Daily Telegraph

Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero

Today We Die a Little

LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 
 
 
The definitive biography of one of the greatest, most extraordinary runners and Olympic heroes of all time.

A tale from athletics' age of innocence... He was a sporting hero not just for his time but for all time

A wonderfully in-depth and often emotionally charged piece of writing

An astonishing achievement... There are few writers as adept at capturing so lyrically the utter and incomprehensible strangeness of distance running... A joy to read

Sport book of the year… A fascinating tale, showing all sides of Zátopek, injecting humanity and humour into a dramatic life

Reminds us of the pain and the glory behind every victory and the power of sport to bring people together and make history

A warm, honest and moving account of one of the greatest sportsmen of all time. Richard Askwith brings to life both the epic triumphs but also the difficulties and complexities of Zatopek's role in Communist Czechoslovakia

Adharanand Finn, author of Running with the Kenyans

A tremendous read and also a reminder of the lost purity of track and field

Before Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe, there was Emil Zátopek - a Czechoslovakian soldier turned long-distance runner turned Cold War victim. His four Olympic golds, 18 world records and Communist party career are all laid bare in this definitive account

A powerful look at one of the greatest Olympic champions of all time... Riveting... [Zátopek] had a great heart — he was not just an iconic athlete; he was a peacemaker

Bill Rodgers, Olympic runner and four-times winner of the New York and Boston Marathons

Of all the new non-fiction books with Olympic connections, this is the finest and most inspiring.

Richard Askwith has been a journalist for more than 35 years. For the past 15 years he has been Associate Editor of the Independent. A keen runner and a lifelong admirer of Emil Zátopek, he has written two previous books about running. His first, Feet in the Clouds, won Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards and the Bill Rollinson Prize for Landscape and Tradition. It was shortlisted for the William Hill and Boardman-Tasker prizes and was named by Runner’s World as one of the three best running books of all time. His 2014 book, Running Free, was short-listed for the Thwaites-Wainwright Prize.

LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 
 
The definitive biography of one of the greatest, most extraordinary runners and Olympic heroes of all time, from the author of running classic Feet in the Clouds. 
 
 
Emil Zátopek won five Olympic medals, set 18 world records, and went undefeated over 10,000 metres for six years. He redefined the boundaries of endurance, training in Army boots, in snow, in sand, in darkness. But his toughness was matched by a spirit of friendship and a joie de vivre that transcended the darkest days of the Cold War. 
 
His triumphs put his country on the map, yet when Soviet tanks moved in to crush Czechoslovakia’s new freedoms in 1968, Zátopek paid a heavy personal price for his brave defence of ‘socialism with a human face’. Rehabilitated two decades later, he was a shadow of the man he had been – and the world had all but forgotten him. 
 
Today We Die A Little strips away the myths to tell the complex and deeply moving story of the most inspiring Olympic hero of them all.

A Runner’s Journey Back to Nature

Running Free

From the award-winning author of running classic Feet in the Clouds, Richard Askwith makes a passionate and inspiring case for runners to get back to nature.

A joyous, eloquent and lyrical account of one man's lifelong love affair with running... Running Free is simply the prod you need to make you step off the pavement and into the wild

An escape from the stopwatch tyranny of PBs and split times, this is a reminder of how to run for sheer joy

Intelligent, evocative, passionate and above all enjoyable

[An] idiosyncratic, enjoyable tale... Never less than compelling

Delightful and endearing…a contemplation of the beauty and joy of experiencing the world out there, beyond the tarmac

The most beautifully written book I have read in ages... Askwith explains why his mind is forever wandering towards thoughts of running freely, up hills, across fields, and through forests whose damp leaves look “like smashed Marmite jars”. You can’t read such metaphors without being moved by them — literally

I finished Askwith's book feeling an urgent need to run up the nearest fell, with no watch and no plan. Just me and my whistle, running free

[Askwith's] prose is as easeful and exhilarating as his energy and attitude

An inspiring account of running in natural surroundings

Richard Askwith’s memoir/guide Running Free inspired me to lace up my trainers and go yomping through the nearest woods

The paperback is worth picking up for any keen runners… [Askwith’s] flowing prose will inspire you to slip on your trainers and head outside

As a manual for sheer enthusiasm it can’t be bettered

His wonderfully evocative history of that north country oddity, fell running, captured my imagination on my first reading, and it has recaptured it on each subsequent one

This is probably my favourite running book and I have returned to read it several times

Shortlisted for the 2015 Thwaites Wainwright prize for nature writing 
 
Richard Askwith wanted more. Not convinced running had to be all about pounding pavements, buying fancy kit and racking up extreme challenges, he looked for ways to liberate himself. His solution: running through muddy fields and up rocky fells, running with his dog at dawn, running because he's being (voluntarily) chased by a pack of bloodhounds, running to get hopelessly, enjoyably lost, running fast for the sheer thrill of it. Running as nature intended. 
 
Part diary of a year running through the Northamptonshire countryside, part exploration of why we love to run without limits, Running Free is an eloquent and inspiring account of running in a forgotten, rural way, observing wildlife and celebrating the joys of nature. 
 
An opponent of the commercialisation of running, Askwith offers a welcome alternative, with practical tips (learned the hard way) on how to both start and keep running naturally – from thawing frozen toes to avoiding a stampede when crossing a field of cows. Running Free is about getting back to the basics of why we love to run.

In Search of a Forgotten Rural England

The Lost Village

A quest for a disappearing England; a dramatically readable search for the fading voices and patterns of a rural way of life

A quest, both funny and sad, for the remnants of English country life

a penetrating look at eh state of rural England in the early 21st century...unsentimental about the past and unpersuaded by the present's superficiality

A gentle book, a search for something no longer there, as perhaps it never had been

[Askwith] succeeds handsomely, ferreting out a remarkable array of old-timers...their disappearing world captured vividly

The idea of the village - unspoilt, unpretentious, unchanging and growing almost organically out of the landscape - is one of the most potent in the English imagination. Writers, artists and ordinary people have waxed lyrical on the theme for centuries, while today millions have left the cities in search of the rural idyll. 
 
Yet the village is plainly dying. The unchanging rhythms of village life, as experienced with little variations by generations, have vanished. But not without trace ... they exist in living memory. In the voices of men and women for whom the old ways were life-shaping realities. 
 
Richard Askwith, an award-winning writer and journalist, describes a journey in search of the quintessential English village, through dales and suburbs, down ancient lanes and estates. He captures the voices of poachers and gamekeepers, farmers and hunters, nurses and postmen, teachers and craftsmen, and demonstrates that, while the landscape more changed than we thought, the past is never so simple as we imagine.

Richard Askwith

Adventures in Late-Life Running

'Inspirational' - Observer 
 
A transformational quest for the secrets of happy, healthy, whole-life running that will change the way you think about growing older. 
 
Colourful, informative and inspiring, The Race Against Time is a story of cold science and heart-warming resilience; of champions and also-rans; of sprinting centenarians and forty-something super-athletes barely touched by age. Its heroes are experts and enthusiasts - scientists, coaches, runners - from many countries, each with a different story to tell. 
 
This is a book for anyone who has ever felt the healing power of running &ndash; or simply wondered about the effects of ageing. It is both a very personal account of one man's journey from despair to hope, and an exhilarating guide, explaining how timely adjustments to lifestyle and training can slow the progress of physiological decay, while sheer human spirit can, if you are lucky, keep you running happily and healthily, all the way into extreme old age.

Richard Askwith

The Race Against Time

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