Laughing in the Hills by Bill Barich

40 years ago Bill Barich was barely surviving in a rented mobile home near San Francisco: five rejected novels, no money and no job. His wife was sick, his mother and mother-in-law had died of cancer within a matter of five weeks. So what to do in a crisis: head to a small racetrack near the Golden Gate Bridge to spend ten weeks in amongst the characters of the sport of kings and write one of the best sports books ever committed to print. In episode 8, Barich talks to Simon Clancy about how the book got off the ground, how that season changed his life and how he went from his last $500 to writing scripts for Dustin Hoffman.