Mark Whitaker
Mark Whitaker is a founding partner of the independent radio production company Pennine Productions. Since 2003 he has produced, written and presented more than twenty documentaries on BBC Radio 4. In 2004 he was awarded Silver in the Sports Category at the Sony Radio Academy Awards for his investigation into rugby culture in South West France – ‘The Land of the Oval Ball’.
He has written for The Times, Guardian, Independent, Observer and New Statesman. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and lives with his wife and two children in the hills of West Yorkshire.
Books by Mark Whitaker
An Unlikely Partnership: Peter Gavuzzi, Arthur Newton and professional endurance running between the Wars
Histories of British athletics are silent about him but Peter Gavuzzi (1905-1981) was probably the greatest long-distance runner the country has ever produced. The book will tell of his lifelong friendship with another athlete – Arthur Newton – almost twice his age. In 1928 and 1929 they took part in two of the most extraordinary and notorious races ever held – the transcontinental runs across America. In the second race, after covering more than 3,500 miles, Gavuzzi lost by little more than two minutes. He never received his prize money from a crooked promoter.
World Rights: Yellow Jersey Press (Random House)