Brits at their Best

Roger Bannister

The winds dropped, his teammates paced him, and Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile.

Norris McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, made the announcement at the track.

Long afterwards, Bannister wrote about that run, "No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed."

He spent the next fifty years treating patients and making contributions to neurology.

What a guy.

Republished

Posted by David at May 06, 2011 02:02 PM | Permalink |

Comments (1)

jlh:

It was such big deal in my generation that it was shown in movie theaters as a "short" all over the USA.

jlh | May 6, 2011 09:42 AM

Posted on May 06, 2011 09:42

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Book cover

The people of Britain and the Anglosphere defied a world of cruelty and superstition to create life-changing gifts. This is your inheritance. Glorious. Hardcover, 140 pages, 125 colour illustrations.

Available at PG Wells Bookshop, Winchester, 01962 852 016.

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DAVID ABBOTT MD, MRCP

I have practiced medicine in England, America and Canada for the last four decades. I believe in the principles of Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. I am a father, grandfather, bell ringer, environmental campaigner and marathoner.

Brits at their Best produced thousands of indispensable inventions, developed wildly popular sports, designed romantic houses and gardens, created astonishing literary masterpieces, lived with style and humour, tackled dangerous missions with daring and ingenuity, and fought with indomitable courage to establish and protect the free world.

We describe their superb achievements and extraordinary lives.

CATHERINE (CAT) GLASS

I saw tyranny firsthand in Eastern Europe. (My background is English, Irish, and Czech.) I received my degree in Classical Greek from Columbia University, New York, worked in publishing in the United States for twenty years, and helped the homeless for seven years.

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