A Life In A Day In A Year

A Life In A Day In A Year is written in the style of a folded clock and gives a unique insight into a 'year' between 1973 and 1978 in the life of a Scottish athlete. In 1978 the author got as close to beating the disgraced world number one 800 metres East German athlete, Olaf Beyer, as either Sebastian Coe or Steve Ovett. The book tells the story of the ups and the downs of a young man's day to day journey and his quest to become a champion athlete. It includes life at the 1976 Olympic Games and the 1978 European and Commonwealth Championships as well as details about his training and racing, giving an insight in to the requirements to run 1 minute 46 seconds for a half mile. There are colourful and amusing descriptions of trips abroad to behind 'the Iron Curtain' and other countries. This is the first volume of The Hermes Quartet - the god of speed - which is a tetralogy of athletics based books by Hoffmann published between 2017 and 2020. The quartet also includes A Practical Philosophy of 800 Metres Running Festina Lente (2018); The True Confessions Of Retep Nnamffoh: School's Out For Ever, A 1973 Edinburgh Young Athlete's Diary (2018) and The Way We Were (2020).