Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and author of the international bestseller Born to Run, an anthropological study of endurance, fitness, and what makes ultra-runners tick. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.

'A fascinating edifice of ideas ... But the pleasures of the book are as much to do with the fascinating panoply of characters, war heroes all, British, Commonwealth and Cretan, whose exploits contributed so much to Hitler's downfall.

Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and author of the international bestseller Born to Run, an anthropological study of endurance, fitness, and what makes ultra-runners tick. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.

'A fascinating edifice of ideas ... But the pleasures of the book are as much to do with the fascinating panoply of characters, war heroes all, British, Commonwealth and Cretan, whose exploits contributed so much to Hitler's downfall.

Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and author of the international bestseller Born to Run, an anthropological study of endurance, fitness, and what makes ultra-runners tick. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.

'A fascinating edifice of ideas ... But the pleasures of the book are as much to do with the fascinating panoply of characters, war heroes all, British, Commonwealth and Cretan, whose exploits contributed so much to Hitler's downfall.