He recommended the twin brothers Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had both won blues as sprinters at Oxford and were running a publishing company and fact-finding agency in London. Norris McWhirter was the announcer at the track in Oxford in 1954 when Roger Bannister broke four minutes for the mile, which gave a fresh boost to the whole subject of records, and Guinness duly commissioned the book. It is said that what clinched it for the McWhirters was their instant correct response when asked which language has the fewest irregular verbs, the answer being Turkish.
