' An enthralling account' Independent 'A fascinating book...researched with an awesome thoroughness' Daily Telegraph ' Hampton's excellent book should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in the 2012 London Olympics' Daily Mail Critic's Choice The budget for the 2012 Olympic village alone is already a billion pounds short. The likelihood of corporate sponsorship recedes with every day of the credit crunch. How on earth are we going to match the opening & closing ceremonies of Beijing let along top them? Fortunately London has been through just such hard times before in the run-up to an Olympics & in 1948 it showed just how to run a fantastic Games on a tiny budget
- indeed make them all the better for it. Janie Hampton's book about the last time the Olympics came to London is a tale of female competitors sewing their own kit teams ferried to the Games on red London buses & billeted in Spartan hostels or even army camps & the main stadium being hastily cleared of greyhound racing to allow the athletics to take place. The total budget was GBP760 000 great athletes like Emil Zatopek & Fanny Blankers-Koen thrilled the crowds & at the end a profit was turned! This is a book that becomes more relevant & ironically entertaining every day nearer to 2012. Janie Hampton is also the author of a bestselling biography of Joyce Grenfell. She lives in Oxford