For the Glory: The Life of Eric Liddell

Description

The definitive biography of one of Britain's greatest ever heroes, by the two-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. 'Eric Liddell deserves a definitive biography. This is it.' Sunday Times, Books of the Year Faster. Higher. Stronger. No one has embodied the ideals of the Olympic movement quite like Eric Liddell, star of the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. After refusing to compete on religious principle in the event in which he was favourite, the 100 metres, at the 1924 Games in Paris, Liddell won an astonishing gold medal in the 400 metres. But instead of pursuing a path of global fame and fortune, he chose to follow his calling as a missionary in the country of his birth, China, a land which then fell under the iron grip of a brutal Japanese army. Liddell became the inspirational leader of the work camp in which he, like many thousands, was interned, and For the Glory is the full story of his life, of his family, of his fellow prisoners and the terrible hardships and atrocities they experienced in the Far East. This is the tale of a sporting icon, a man of honour and principle who paid the ultimate sacrifice while becoming the moral centre of an otherwise unbearable world.

Duncan Hamilton is the author of Provided You Don't Kiss Me- 20 Years with Brian Clough which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2007. In 2009, he was awarded the William Hill again, for Harold Larwood, as well as winning the prestigious Wisden Book of the Year for 2009 and Biography of the Year at the 2010 British Sports Book Awards. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales.

For the Glory is wonderful: painstakingly researched, intelligently structured and written with flair. In an Olympic year, it is fitting that an Olympic tale should be the most uplifting. * Daily Telegraph, Sports Books of the Year * Eric Liddell deserves a definitive biography. This is it. * Sunday Times, Sports Books of the Year * Absorbing... in an age when sport is riddled with corruption, vanity and petty rage, Liddell's story is timely. However, the real theme is faith and providence rather than fame and proving oneself. A story about religious belief could be dry fare, but Liddell is too good a subject and Hamilton too deft a guide to let that happen... He is one of the great sportsmen of the 20th century purely because he knew sport's place. * The Times * Eric Liddell's athletic prowess was immortalised in Chariots of Fire. But Duncan Hamilton offers a more detailed and equally engrossing insight into one of Britain's great sporting heroes in this compelling new biography. For the Glory is in turn triumphant, harrowing, moving yet ultimately uplifting. It also cements the status of Hamilton, twice-winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, as the doyen of biographical sports writing. * Daily Express * Duncan Hamilton's compelling biography puts flesh on the legend and paints a vivid picture of not only a great athlete, but also a very special human being. * Daily Mail, Book of the Week *