“All I know most surely about morality and obligation I owe to football”,
The Flying Scotsman by Sally Magnusson
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The Flying Scotsman Sally Magnusson, Quartet Books, 1981. ISBN 0 7043 3379 1 (191 pages)
Written to accompany a BBC Scotland documentary, Sally Magnusson's was the next book written after Thompson's. It is an excellent analysis of Liddell's life.
Sally Magnusson asks why, when other athletes achieved more in 1924, is Eric Liddell the one who is remembered? "The answer, of course, is because he refused to run on a Sunday. He captured the imagination of millions by tossing away his chance of a gold medal in the 100 metres - the race he was favourite to win because a principle of his Christian faith mattered more."
Magnusson includes some lovely stories about Eric, like the time an audience asked the secret of his success on the track, expected perhaps some spiritual principles, getting instead the reply, "the fact is I don't like to be beaten."
She also records, with Capt Philip Christison was in charge of getting the British athletes to the stadium for the Olympics as the source, Eric's soul searching as to whether or not he was letting Scotland down.
The book usefully records some of Eric's races in China as well as the story of how the man who refused to run on Sunday was willing to referee sports on Sunday in the internment camp. "He would not run on a Sunday for an Olympic gold medal in the 100 metres and all the glory in the world; but he refereed a game on Sunday, he broke his on breakable principle, just to keep a handful of imprisoned youngsters at peace with each other. It speaks volumes about the man".