Long Distance Information by Julie Welch
Wonderfully funny, poignant and candid, Long Distance Information is the story of how a woman took up running and saved her life. In 1996 Julie Welch decided in a moment of vainglory to cycle to Paris for charity. The fact that she was neither fit nor the owner of a bike failed to deter her. The exhilaration she felt sliding off the saddle at the Arc de Triomphe was the start of an obsession. From cycling it was but a short step to running and from running to confronting the ghosts of her childhood. But just as her affair with running shoes began, she was unceremoniously fired from the job she loved. It was the catalyst for an inspirational journey - a journey of self-discovery and survival. Long Distance Information is the story of that journey. It would take her from the French seaside town where she was packed off on holiday, aged ten, back to England and the house where she grew up, where at long last she was able to lay her ghosts to rest.