The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Alan Sillitoe

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Copyright

      These short stories are entirely works of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in them are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of Harper CollinsPublishers Ltd.

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       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition published 2007

      Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1985 (reprinted five times), by Flamingo 1993 and as a Flamingo Modern Classic 1994

      First published in Great Britain by W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd 1959

      Copyright © Alan Sillitoe 1959

      PS Section copyright © Sarah O’Reilly 2007, except ‘A Biographical Sketch copyright © Travis Elborough 2006

      PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

      Alan Sillitoe asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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      Source ISBN: 9780007255603

      Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2013 ISBN: 9780007381968 Version 2017–01–12

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

       Uncle Ernest

       Mr Raynor the School-teacher

       The Fishing-boat Picture

       Noah’s Ark

       On Saturday Afternoon

       The Match

       The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale

       The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller

       Keep Reading

       P.S. Ideas, Interviews & features …

       About the Author

       About the Book

       Read On

       About the Author

       Also by the Author

       About the Publisher

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

      As soon as I got to Borstal they made me a long-distance cross-country runner. I suppose they thought I was just the build for it because I was long and skinny for my age (and still am) and in any case I didn’t mind it much, to tell you the truth, because running had always been made much of in our family, especially running away from the police. I’ve always been a good runner, quick and with a big stride as well, the only trouble being that no matter how fast I run, and I did a very fair lick even though I do say so myself, it didn’t stop me getting caught by the cops after that bakery job.

      You might think it a bit rare, having long-distance cross-country runners in Borstal, thinking that the first thing a long-distance cross-country runner would do when they set him loose at them fields and woods would be to run as far away from the place as he could get on a bellyfull of Borstal slum-gullion – but you’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why. The first thing is that them bastards over us aren’t as daft as they most of the time look, and for another thing I’m not so daft as I would look if I tried to make a break for it on my long-distance running, because to abscond and then get caught is nothing but a mug’s game, and I’m not falling for it. Cunning is what counts in this life, and even that you’ve got to use it in the slyest way you can; I’m telling you straight: they’re cunning, and I’m cunning. If only ‘them’ and ‘us’ had the same ideas we’d get on like a house on fire, but they don’t see eye to eye with us and we don’t see eye to eye with them, so that’s how it stands and how it will always stand. The one fact is that all of us are cunning, and because of this there’s СКАЧАТЬ