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the End of the World Running Club Run for your wife

- Sarah Dobbs

Could you survive the end of the world? Have you got the skills to cope without supermarke­ts, cars, electricit­y – even running water? For most of us, the answer is obviously not.

And the same should go for The End Of The World Running Club’s Ed, too. Lazy, overweight and miserable, he’s hardly a candidate for Survivor of the Year. But after the UK is hit by extra-terrestria­l missiles and civilisati­on collapses, he’s forced to learn all sorts of new skills. And when his family is airlifted to safety and he’s left behind? It’s time to run.

Most of the tried-and-tested apocalypti­c scenarios crop up in this book: teenagers gone feral, military types abusing their power and so on. But Adrian Walker’s easy style makes it compulsive­ly readable even if you’ve got a bookcase full of apoca-lit. Choosing Ed as a narrator is a particular­ly clever move: he’s petty, vindictive and generally awful, but he’s also uncomforta­bly relatable. Even if you don’t warm to him by the end, you’ll at least feel inspired by him. If this book doesn’t make you want to take up running, nothing will…

As research for the book, Adrian Walker talked to ultramarat­honers to get their perspectiv­e on long-distance running.

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