New Yorker writer Ed Caesar's latest book, The Moth and The Mountain, tells for the first time the incredible story of madcap adventurer Maurice Wilson.

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Reading lists

5 of the best real-life adventure books

The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon

Two Hours

WINNER OF THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARD FOR NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 
 
'Lyrical and passionate ... a celebration of the human spirit and what it can achieve' Observer 
 
Two hours to cover twenty-six miles and 385 yards. An exceptional feat of speed, mental strength and endurance. The sub-two-hour marathon is running's Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we have reached the mountaintop. 
 
In this spellbinding book Ed Caesar takes us into the world of the elite of the elite: the greatest marathoners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, and their troubled lives, he traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology and psychology involved in running so fast, for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its savage, enthralling appeal - why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit. 
 
Now with a new afterword telling the inside story of how Eliud Kipchoge achieved the impossible, with exclusive access to Nike's #Breaking2 project, and the Ineos159 event at which the barrier was finally broken.

Ed Caesar's treatment of the near-mythical two-hour marathon is both implacably scientific and wonderfully reverential. As a former marathoner I deeply appreciate both. The prose hums along effortlessly and the topic is one of the most profound there is: the absolute limits of human performance. Reading a book that combines those two things is one of the great pleasures in life

A fascinating insight into the clockwork of what it means to be an elite athlete, always pushing at the edge of possibility. Like a good runner, Caesar carries the story along with grace and ease and generosity. He brings us to Kenya, New York, London, and Berlin, but ultimately allows us to look inside ourselves. It's the human story that shines through

I didn't think any book could make me interested in marathon running. Two Hours did that and much more. Ed Caesar's in-depth reporting explores one of sport's ultimate questions: is there a final human boundary and, if so, where? A terrific book: elegant, engaging and rewarding

Ed Smith, former England cricketer, Times Columnist and author of Luck

This book explodes out of the blocks, continues at a terrific clip, never flags and breasts the tape victorious, its arms in the air. Like the best foot race, it is tight, pacy and riveting. A brilliant debut. Give the man a medal and a bunch of flowers

Lyrical and passionate... a celebration of the human spirit and what it can achieve

A delight to read. The definitive book on professional marathon running

Marvellous. Caesar's reportage has the feel of the very best of American journalism - as if he has researched the matter to hell, spent his time in the field, nailed down every fact, then bashed it out on a typewriter with a cigarette smouldering in his mouth

'Two Hours is a kind of "Hoop Dreams" for runners'

Fascinating, timely, meticulously researched... this exploration of one of the great sporting quests of modern times will inspire anyone with a pair of trainers to go for a run

Caesar is very good on the personalities, mixing the art and science of distance running with vignettes about the athletes

A fine, engaging study of human endurance and the competitive spirit of marathon runners. Caesar wears his considerable research into most aspects of the marathon - its history, science, and the spectre of performance-enhancing drugs - with a loping, easy style

Fascinating. Will be enjoyed by anyone who has completed long runs along canals, through parks and down suburban streets

'Zippy, engaging, stylish, evocative'

There is much spirit in Two Hours and much human warmth

'Two Hours breaks new ground'

Caesar has established himself as perhaps the best new long-form magazine writer since the arrival of John Jeremiah Sullivan

Ed Caesar is forty years old. He lives in Manchester, and writes for the New Yorker. He has won eleven major journalism awards - including a British Press Award, PPA Writer of the Year and the 2014 Foreign Press Award for Journalist of the Year. His subjects have included conflict in central Africa, the world's longest tennis match, stolen art, money-laundering, and the trade in diamonds. His first book, Two Hours, won a Cross Sports Book Award in 2016.

Two hours to cover twenty-six miles and 385 yards. An exceptional feat of speed, mental strength and endurance. The sub-two-hour marathon is running's Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we have reached the mountaintop. 
 
In this spellbinding book Ed Caesar takes us into the world of the elite of the elite: the greatest marathoners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, and their troubled lives, he traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology and psychology involved in running so fast, for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its savage, enthralling appeal - why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit. 
 
Now with a new afterword telling the inside story of how Eliud Kipchoge achieved the impossible, with exclusive access to Nike's #Breaking2 project, and the Ineos159 event at which the barrier was finally broken.

Ed Caesar

Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award 2021

In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan. He would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit - by himself. Maurice Wilson didn't know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. But he had pluck, daring and a vision - he wanted to be the first man to stand on top of the world. 
 
Wilson is a man written out of the history books - dismissed as an eccentric and a charlatan by many, but held in the highest regard by many mountaineers. The Moth and the Mountain restores him to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and in doing so attempts to answer that perennial question - why do we climb mountains?

Ed Caesar

The Moth and the Mountain

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