Flying Scotsman, The

Description

Why has a major production company made a film for the 1980s about an athlete of the 1920s? Why has the man who produced ‘Midnight Express’ turned to a story that could have come straight from the pages of “Boys Own”? What is the secret of Eric Liddell’s enduring charisma – the man who would not run on Sunday, who sacrificed an Olympic Gold Medal to principle and then astonished the world by winning a different one, and who then slipped quietly out of the limelight to become a missionary to China? Journalist Sally Magnusson wanted to find out. This is her fascinating account of the highlights of Eric Liddell’s life – 1924 Paris Olympics, adulation by fellow Scots and students of Edinburgh University, itinerant evangelist in war-ravaged China, and death in a Japanese internment camp. This is the story of her search for Eric Liddell, the man – not the saint. Part of this story has been filmed as “Chariots of Fire” by 20th Century Fox. Producer David Putnam believes that people today are seeking heroes again – men like Eric Liddell.