I didn’t expect to like this book. That’s why I didn’t read it. I listened to it.

Here’s the thing: I listen to audiobooks I have no intention of reading. Mostly autobiographies as long as they’re read be person themselves. I like to hear their own story in their own words and listening to an autobiography is better than reading it to get a sense of who they are.

Matthew Perry sounded like he hated himself but, also, stories that had sounded harsh on paper when mentioned in reviews, were told more as jokes when read by him. Billy Connolly’s autobiographies are frequently broken by the sound of him laughing while Patrick Stewart had a powerful resonant voice that could make anything interesting but didn’t he know it.

So I started listening to the Hardest Geezer: Mind Over Miles to find out more about Russ ‘The Hardest Geezer’ Cook’s record breaking run from the southern most tip of Africa to the northern most point. But as his story unfolded, I gave him the highest compliment I can give an audiobook – I bought the book and read it instead. The story was too good to only to in the car. I wanted to read it when I got home too.

With a working class perspective and what felt like an open and honest assessment of his own failings, this felt like a truthful account of a hard journey that involved illness, danger, kidnapping and many many miles of running.

Four stars.