Footnotes: How running makes us human

Running is not just a sport; it is the breaking down of our increasingly structured and demanding lives. In our always-on world, we are becoming alienated from our environment and ourselves, running reconnects us, lifts the spirit and allows our minds out to play and can help us to remember some of the impossible strangeness of what it means to be human. Footnotes will take you out to tread London’s streets, climbing to sites that have seen a millennium of hangings, or down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin's Venice. It will transport you to the cliff tops of Hardy's Dorset, the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California and the boulevards of Paris, using debates in literature, philosophy, biology and neuroscience to explore that simple human desire to run. Liberating and inspiring, this book will remind you why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives.