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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a story by the British writer Alan Sillitoe published in 1958, and it is contained in a collection of short stories published under the same title. It concerns a young man confined in a borstal institution who seeks solace in long distance running with the encouragement and support of the Governor.

It was made into a film in 1962, with a screenplay by Sillitoe and directed by Tony Richardson, one of new young directors emerging from documentary films, specifically a series of 1950s filmmakers known as the Free Cinema movement.

It tells the story of "a rebellious youth (played by Tom Courtenay), sentenced to a boy's reformatory for robbing a bakery, who rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor's (played by Michael Redgrave) prize runner."^[1]

Set in a rather grim environment of 1960s Britain and like other films which deal with rebellious youth, it is a story of how the youth chooses to defy authority and, in the end, gains his own self esteem (at the probable personal cost of continued confinement). The film places its characters thoroughly in their social milieu. Class consciousness abounds throughout: here the "them" and "us" notions which Richardson shows reflect the very basis of British society at the time, so that Redgrave's "proper gentleman" of a Governor is in contrast to many of the young working class inmates.

The British heavy metal group Iron Maiden adapted the short story into the song of the same name on their Somewhere in Time album. Scottish rock group Belle and Sebastian, adapted the title for the song "Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner" on their 2001 EP, Jonathan David. United States band Ruxton Towers takes its name from the film, in which a reformatory school has the same name.

1. ^ The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner at the Internet Movie Database

• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner at the Internet Movie Database

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