Science Museum’s Writer in Residence, Mick Jackson, has published a short memoir, ‘My Running Hell’ – a wry account of his experience of jogging and trying to keeping fit. The piece was commissioned by the Museum as part of his residency to tie in with the season of sport in London this summer.

To celebrate the launch of his first piece of non-fiction, Jackson will be reading excerpts at the Science Museum’s adults-only LATES night on Wednesday 27th July. Doors open at 7pm and entry is free. The theme of July’s LATES is ‘Sport’ and will celebrate the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games with a number of events, talks and workshops.

Mick Jackson is the author of three novels and two illustrated collections of stories. His first novel, The Underground Man, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and won The Royal Society of Authors’ First Novel Award.

Mick Jackson says, “I wanted to write a piece about running – something I’ve done on a reasonably regular basis for most of my adult life, but to do so in a way which focussed less on the spiritual benefits and more on the fundamentals, such as trying to motivate oneself in the first instance, recurring injuries and the relationship one has with one’s running partner.

“Whilst working on it I discovered a scrapbook I’d made for the ’72 Munich Olympics and through this was able to address my hero-worship of David Bedford and, more recently, Steve Ovett. Above all else, though, I wanted to celebrate running not just with regard to the elite athletes who’ll be gracing the track and field this summer but the everyday men and women who pull on their running shoes on a wet Sunday morning and heroically step out into the mud and mire.”

The Science Museum asked Mick to take a break from his ongoing research into the collections to offer a personal perspective on the summer of sport in London that could be distributed to visitors as part of the Museum’s culture offer during this exciting period.

Hannah Redler, Head of Science Museum Arts Projects, said, “’My Running Hell’ is a celebration of the process of personal sportsmanship, its successes and inevitable failures. Very few of us will ever be major-league winners but we can all engage in our own form of activity. Mick brings readers to join him on his own running mission through a humorous and deftly written analysis of his motivations, histories and activities in running.”