The Book of Seconds reveals the exciting, intriguing and heroic runners-up who until now have been kept in the shadow of the firsts.

Did you know that the winner of the second Tour de France rode 25 miles on two flat tyres?

Or that the second crew to land on the Moon danced to a pop song in zero gravity?

Step forward all the nearly-men and nearly-women, the nearly skyscrapers, nearly-LPs and nearly deserts. Your time in the spotlight has come at last.

Mark Mason

'Winning is everything', so they say. But actually second can be thrilling, intriguing, heroic and pure. You may not have heard of John Landy, Juerg Marmet or 'You Better Run', but that doesn't mean they're not worth knowing about. They are, respectively, the second man to run a sub-four-minute mile, the leader of the second team to conquer Everest, and the second video played on MTV.

The Book of Seconds will tell the stories of the nearly-men and nearly-women, not to mention the nearly-skyscrapers, nearly-moon missions and nearly-whales: the people and things who until now have sat in the shadow of the firsts. This book will bring them gloriously into the limelight hitherto denied to them.