The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner is a short story collection by English author Alan Sillitoe. Stories "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner": A teenager from Nottingham is convicted for burgling a bakery and sent to Borstal, where he finds solace in long-distance running. "Uncle Ernest": Ernest Brown the upholsterer is lonely and suffering from shell-shock. He feels guilty for surviving the trenches of World War I. His wife has left him, and he has lost touch with his family. One morning two young girls sit at his table in a cafe, disrupting his routine of introspection. He speaks to them and buys them cakes. In the weeks that follow, he regularly meets them and buys them food and gifts; they give him a reason to live. The police then tell him not to go near them again, and he turns to drink. Sillitoe based the title character on a relative of his, Uncle Edgar, also an upholsterer warned away by police from two young girls he had befriended.