Alec Vidler

Alec Wilkinson

Aled Jones

Aleesha Nandhra

Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) was one of the major Latin American writers of the twentieth century, as well as a classically trained pianist and musicologist. His best-known novels are The Lost Steps, Explosion in a Cathedral, and The Kingdom of This World. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and raised in Havana, Cuba, Carpentier lived for many years in France and Venezuela before returning to Cuba after the 1959 revolution. A few years later he returned to France, where he lived until his death.

Alejo Carpentier

Dr Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic. She has topped the ratings for the BBC and Channel 4, winning Emmy, BAFTA, Radio Academy and Royal Society awards, and has written and presented landmark technology and social science series for both radio (with BBC Radio 4’s The Artificial Human and The Digital Human) and international television (with BBC World’s The Virtual Revolution). Krotoski has held fellowships at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and received an honorary doctorate from the Open University. She currently teaches at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Aleks Krotoski

Aleksandar Ciric

Aleksandar Sotirovski

Aleksandar Zolotic

Aleksandr Orlov

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 and grew up in Rostov-on-Don. He graduated in Physics and Mathematics from Rostov University and studied Literature by correspondence course at Moscow University. In World War II he fought as an artillery officer, attaining the rank of captain. In 1945, however, after making derogatory remarks about Stalin in a letter, he was arrested and summarily sentenced to eight years in forced labour camps, followed by internal exile. In 1957 he formally rehabilitated, and settled down to teaching and writing, in Ryazan and Moscow. The publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in Novy Mir in 1962 was followed by publication, in the West, of his novels Cancer Ward and The First Circle. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in 1974 his citizenship was revoked and he was expelled from the Soviet Union. He settled in Vermont and worked on his great historical cycle The Red Wheel. In 1990, with the fall of Soviet Communism, his citizenship was restored and four years later he returned to settle in Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died in August 2008.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksei Bitskoff

Aleksei Evdokimo

Aleksi Hoffman

Alena Tkach is an award-winning Ukrainian freelance illustrator who studied Graphic Arts at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. She works mostly as children’s book illustrator and 2D artist. Alena loves llamas because they are cute and sweet, and when they jump it's really funny. Follow Alena on Instagram @alena.tkach.

Alena Tkach

Alessandra Peters

Alessandro Manzoni

Alex Bellos

Alex Bellos is a journalist, broadcaster and puzzle master. He read Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford University before becoming a journalist and writer. Alex was born in Oxford and grew up in Edinburgh and Southampton and lived in Brazil for five years as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian before returning to the UK He is the author of 8 books about puzzles and mathematics and currently writes weekly puzzle column for the Guardian.

Alex Berenson

Alex Boardman

Alex Brummer

Alex Bulmer

Alex Butterworth

Alex Caine

Alex Carter

Alex Chance

Alex Cliff

Alex Danchev

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Boris Becker

Boris Becker shot to fame in 1985 when at seventeen years old, he became the youngest player ever to win the men's final at Wimbledon. He went on to win two more Wimbledon titles, and a total of forty-nine singles and fifteen doubles crowns, making him one of the greatest players of the twentieth century. But his life off the court has always attracted as much attention as his triumphs on it. 
 
Now, in this remarkably candid and thought-provoking autobiography, Boris Becker tells the real story behind the headlines. He speaks of the seconds before the serve that made him the youngest Wimbledon winner of all time, and of the minutes after being sentenced as a tax evader. He talks about his marriage, his illegitimate daughter, and his painful divorce. He reveals his emotions at the end of his tennis career, and his battles with pills and alcohol. He also shares his memories of the good times, the championship wins, the make-or-break matches, and the highs and lows of life on the international circuit. 
 
Boris Becker has written this autobiography not just for his fans but also for his children, that they may one day read the true account of their father's remarkable, and often controversial, life.

The Player

Charlie Oatway

Charlie Oatway was born into a family who were often in prison and always on the wrong side of the law. Unable to learn his lessons in school, Charlie was soon involved in petty crime and it seemed his life would follow that of his dad and uncles. He managed to become a professional footballer, but when he was sent to jail himself, it seemed that there was no turning back for this bad lad either. 
 
Tackling Life is the story of how Charlie managed to turn his life around. Even though trouble was always just around the corner, his fighting spirit made him a success on the football pitch. And after becoming captain of Brighton and Hove Albion, Charlie went public with his problems with reading and writing. His book tells how people can be inspired and educated through the power of football.

Tackling Life

Catherine Fox

Catherine Fox is not your typical martial artist. Her initiation into the sacred rites of judo began not in a dojo in Tokyo but in the Tunnel Cement Works in Pitstone, Buckinghamshire. And her dedication to the sport has been questionable: a thirty-year sabbatical, two children and a life spent writing books does not necessarily prepare one for enlightenment. Determined not to let these details stand in her way, Catherine has set herself a challenge: before she turns forty-five she will become a black belt. After all, how many other opportunities do vicars' wives get to roll around the floor with sweaty blokes? 
 
Fight the Good Fight asks what lessons judo can teach you about life. It's touching surprising, gripping (in every sense) - and the funniest take on spiritual struggle since the last Lions vs. Christians fixture.

Fight the Good Fight

From Vicar's Wife to Killing Machine

Tom Callahan

Ever since he was a two-year-old golf prodigy, Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods has often been viewed less as a human being and more as a ball-striking machine - and his carefully guarded image and emotionless persona seemed to guarantee that it would remain that way. Even after his recent bombshell adultery scandal, the public still knows very little about the man behind the golf clubs and multimillion-dollar endorsement deals. But one thing is certain: Earl Woods, Tiger's beloved and now deceased father, knew him better and influenced his life more than anyone. To know the father is to know the son. 
 
With unparalleled insight into the man who made Tiger Woods the person that he is, His Father's Son is both a detailed biography and a touching story of an intense father-and-son relationship.

His Father's Son

Earl and Tiger Woods

Bill Strickland

Lance Armstrong’s surprise announcement in 2008 that he would return to cycling to raise global awareness about cancer prompted widespread speculation about performance-enhancing drugs, the validity of his past victories and his true motivations. 
 
In Tour de Lance, Bill Strickland follows Armstrong’s 2009 return to racing from January’s Tour Down Under in Australia to the Tour de France in July and asks what drives someone to step back into the glare of the spotlight after walking away from adulation. Is it ego? Is it boredom? Why is it that we love a comeback? 
 
Strickland’s second-to-none knowledge of the cycling world makes Tour de Lance a compelling look at both the sport’s complex dynamics and one of the most celebrated – and controversial – cyclists of our time.

Tour de Lance

A Wild Ride Through Lance Armstrong's Comeback

Bobby Windsor

Peter Jackson

Lions legend Bobby Windsor has enjoyed triumphs beyond the dreams of most international players but has also suffered personal tragedy. His rugby career as the best hooker in the British Isles during the second golden era of Welsh rugby in the 1970s is a turbulent tale of blood and thunder on the pitch. There are riotous incidents off the pitch, including unscheduled fights with professional boxers, revelations about illegal payments during the so-called amateur era and what Windsor did to upset the Establishment and become blackballed by one of the most famous clubs in the world. 
 
Windsor's irrepressible sense of humour comes shining through on every page, except when he gives chapter and verse on the personal crisis that drove him to plan suicide. 
 
The Iron Duke is the no-holds-barred, warts-and-all story of a working-class Welsh folk hero who rose from humble beginnings to become a permanent member of the greatest Lions team in the history of rugby union.

The Iron Duke

Bobby Windsor - The Life and Times of a Working-Class Rugby Hero

Peter Storey

True Storey is the compelling autobiography of notorious 1970s football legend Peter Storey, dubbed 'the bastard's bastard', who gained a reputation for ultra-violence on the pitch and had a capacity to find even greater trouble off it - a fact borne out by a string of criminal convictions and several jail sentences. 
 
 A key member, as their midfield enforcer, of the resilient Arsenal team that won the European Fairs Cup followed by the cherished Double in 1970-71, Storey was a confirmed ladies' man who loved a drink. In the mid-'70s, Storey's pub, the Jolly Farmers in Islington, became a magnet for north London villains and he rubbed shoulders with Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey and Howard 'Mr Nice' Marks, Britain's biggest drug smuggler. 
 
 Storey talks candidly about the crimes he committed and the spells in prison that blighted his life. He reveals the truth about his feud with George Best and relays an astonishing account of how Bertie Mee tried to make him miss the 1971 FA Cup final against Bill Shankly's Liverpool side because the Arsenal manager wanted Eddie Kelly to start instead. 
 
 Today, Peter is an elusive character but a man transformed and at ease with life. Only now does he feel the circumstances are right to set the record straight and tell his side of a remarkable True Storey.

True Storey

My Life and Crimes as a Football Hatchet Man

Sam Torrance

The Ryder Cup has defined Sam Torrance's life as a professional golfer. He has played with and against some of the greatest golfers the game has ever known, in the biggest and most high-pressure team event in golf. 
 
In An Enduring Passion, Torrance recalls every great moment in the two decades he spent pursuing Ryder Cup glory and looks at how the event has changed since he was trying to qualify for it as a player in the late 1970s. He examines the tactics and techniques of the captains he played under and those he played against, and tells how his huge experience as a player, and his vice captaincy to Mark James in the bear pit of Brookline, shaped the way he conducted his own captaincy at The Belfry in 2002. Everything he had learned about the Ryder Cup went into his leadership during that event, and when he raised the trophy aloft at the end of it all he knew he had learned the lessons well. 
 
Today, Sam Torrance is one of the most identifiable faces, and voices, of golf. It is the Ryder Cup, though, that made him, and this book is his enlightening account of the competition from an insider's perspective.

An Enduring Passion

My Ryder Cup Years

Iain Carter

'I am the Ryder Cup, I suppose' Colin Montgomerie 
 
For twenty years Colin Montgomerie has been Europe's go-to guy in the Ryder Cup. He has been the catalyst, the leader, the closer. The man they call on to take down America's big guns, the man they turn to when a win is desperately needed to steady the nerves. Now in the twilight of his career he has one last role to play: In 2010 he is Captain of Team Europe in their quest to regain their trophy. 
 
Montgomerie's record in golf's showpiece tournament is unparalleled. Since 1991 he has performed in eight Ryder Cups, winning five of them and has never, ever been beaten in a singles match. He is the most talked about European golfer of his generation but, agonisingly he has never managed to win one of golf's major championships. 
 
Monty's Manor gets right inside Colin Montgomerie's history with the Ryder Cup from his debut in 1991 right up to and including the drama and excitement of this years contest in Wales. Iain Carter has had unprecedented access to key players on both sides of the pond, caddies, coaches, friends, foes, rivals and reporters. Through their eyes we look back on two decades of successes and near misses. It is through them that we get to see the real 'Monty'.

Monty's Manor

Colin Montgomerie and the Ryder Cup

Bernard Dunne

Bernard Dunne boxed for the first time at the age of 6. Twenty-three years later, in an electrifying performance at the O2 arena in Dublin, he stopped the brilliant Ricardo Cordoba to take the WBA World Super Bantamweight belt. 
 
The path from the gym in west Dublin to the world title was often a rocky one. Here, for the first time, Bernard Dunne tells his own amazing story. It begins in Neilstown, where boxing ran in the family. In his amateur career, Bernard never lost to an Irish fighter; but he narrowly missed out on the 2000 Olympics, and rather than spend another four years as an amateur in search of Olympic glory he decided to go pro. 
 
Going pro meant going to California, and, under the tutelage of Sugar Ray Leonard and Freddie Roach, California became a land of dreams for Bernard. Twelve of his fourteen professional fights in America were televised nationally, and he was working towards a title fight. But he missed home, missed his family. He wanted it all: he wanted to win a world title, and he wanted to do it in Ireland. 
 
The way he went about doing that has made Bernard Dunne an Irish national treasure. After winning a European belt, he was defeated by Kiko Martinez; but he bounced back with courage and brilliance to win the WBA super bantamweight belt from Cordoba in front of a delirious crowd at the O2 arena. 
 
Rather than rest on his laurels, as many champions in his position would do, Bernard accepted the toughest challenge of all: from a slab of granite named Poonsawat. He lost the belt, but his courage and dignity in defeat were heroic. Now, Bernard tells the full story of his life and boxing career - a story full of surprises. It will thrill all his old fans and win him new ones.

My Story

David Tossell

In the 1970s, an age long before World Cups, rugby union to the British public meant Bill McLaren, rude songs and, most of all, Wales. Between 1969 and 1979, the men in red shirts won or shared eight Five Nations Championships, including three Grand Slams and six Triple Crowns. But the mere facts resonate less than the enduring images of the precision of Gareth Edwards, the sublime touch of Barry John, the sidesteps of Gerald Davies and Phil Bennett, the courage of J.P.R. Williams, and the forward power of the Pontypool Front Row and 'Merv the Swerve' Davies. 
 
 To the land of their fathers, these Welsh heroes represented pride and conquest at a time when the decline of the province's traditional coal and steel industries was sending thousands to the dole queue and threatening the fabric of local communities. Yet the achievements of those players transcended their homeland and extended beyond mere rugby fans. With the help of comedian Max Boyce, the culture of Welsh rugby and valley life permeated Britain's living rooms at the height of prime time, reinforcing the sporting brilliance that lit up winter Saturday afternoons. 
 
 In Nobody Beats Us, David Tossell, who spent the '70s as a schoolboy scrum-half trying to perfect the Gareth Edwards reverse pass, interviews many of the key figures of a golden age of Welsh rugby and vividly recreates an unforgettable sporting era.

Nobody Beats Us

The Inside Story of the 1970s Wales Rugby Team

Alan Hansen

Football is a game of opinions. Alan Hansen knows this only too well. In his long, distinguished career with Liverpool he faced some fierce public criticism from the media. Now the boot is on the other foot and Hansen himself earns a living as one of football's most outspoken and popular pundits. 
 
Hansen's autobiography is as uncompromising as the man himself. Looking back at fourteen victorious years at Anfield, he focuses on the highlights and the inspirational characters - Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish, Rush - who were so instrumental in building the club's international success. Then there were the disappointments, and the darker days at Heysel and Hillsborough. Hansen reflects on the impact both incidents had on his life, and on the future for spectators of British football. 
 
In 1991 Hansen retired from football. He explains his reasons for not wanting to stay in the game, revealing a surprising lack of self-confidence. If he were starting his playing career now, who are the teams he would want to play for - and those he wouldn't? Which managers and players does he respect? Why does he admire Wimbledon above all other home teams? Hansen addresses these questions and, now that clubs are becoming multi-faceted business empires, looks at the future for the game in the UK. 
 
Until a knee injury ended his playing career, Hansen was one of the most successful British soccer players of all time. He captained Liverpool to an historic double in 1986, and is the only person to have won all of the honours available at club level at least twice. A keen tactical understanding of the game has made him a favourite on BBC TV Match of the Day, Grandstand and Sportsnight. Before embarking on his professional playing career, Hansen was awarded a place at Aberdeen University to read history. He lives with his family in Merseyside.

A Matter Of Opinion

Dan Shanahan

Dan Shanahan is a legend in modern hurling, a three-time All Star and winner of 'Player of the Year' in 2007. His time as an inter-county senior hurler coincided with the remarkable revival in Waterford's fortunes, which saw them win the Munster Final four times in the last decade. 
 
In this candid and revealing autobiography, Dan speaks about his love of the game, which grew out of an idyllic childhood in Lismore and his apprenticeship with the Lismore club. He first made his mark as a senior player with Waterford in 1998, under the management of Gerald McCarthy. But it was when Justin McCarthy took over as manager in 2002 that the Waterford team really began to shine, Dan sharing the glory with such outstanding players as Tony Browne, Eoin Kelly, John Mullane and Ken McGrath. 
 
Yet tensions between the players and manager built up in 2007/2008, culminating in a frustrated Dan famously refusing to shake Justin's hand in public. McCarthy resigned and was replaced by Davy Fitzgerald, who led Waterford to the 2008 All-Ireland Final. 
 
Dan's charisma and extraordinary goal-scoring ability earned him a place in Waterford hearts. His goal in extra time in the 2010 Munster Final against Cork proved what a vital player he remained, and was a fitting climax to a great career. He retired from inter-county hurling shortly after. 
 
A tattoo on Dan's arm reads: If you don't know me, don't judge me. It's a testament to Dan's determination to succeed in the face of adversity.

Dan Shanahan - If you don't know me, don't judge me

My Autobiography

Ellen MacArthur

In October 2009 Ellen MacArthur, one of the greatest sportswomen in the world, announced her retirement from competitive sailing. Many were in disbelief. How could the woman who had fought so hard to set so many records give up racing? But Ellen had found an even tougher challenge than sailing solo round the globe. 
 
Now Ellen is ready to write about her incredible last ten years, including the trip which changed her life. 
 
She speaks honestly about the trials of fame after coming second in the Vendee Globe in 2001; about her frustrations in missing the record for the West-East transatlantic crossing by just 75 minutes in 2004; the dramatic capsize and dismasting she experienced prior to her record attempt, and then the ultimate triumph of her spectacular, record-breaking, non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2004-5, sharing every painful and exciting moment of her 71 days alone at sea. 
 
And of course she tells of the fateful trip to South Georgia in 2005 which caused her to decide to leave competitive sailing behind for ever and focus all her ambition and energy towards a new and much bigger race . . . 
 
Ellen's searingly honest story is a story of triumph over incredible adversity and will inspire others to follow in this remarkable woman's wake.

Full Circle

Richard Williams

Millions of people around the world watched in horror on that fateful day in Imola at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna's car careered off the track at 190mph. The greatest driver in Formula One history was dead. 
In this classic sports book, reissued to tie-in with a new Working Title documentary film about Senna, Richard Williams explores the complex Brazilian who was a hero in his own country and an icon to everyone who loved not just motor-racing but sport itself. In his drive to win and his desire always to test himself to the limit, Senna embodied all that is best and most thrilling in sport.

The Death of Ayrton Senna

Ossie Ardiles

Ossie Ardiles is one of the most iconic footballers ever to have graced the game. After winning the World Cup with Argentina in 1978, Ossie became the first foreign player to make an impact in England, paving the way for the modern era of multinational teams. and was immortalised in Chas &amp; Dave's hit record "Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way to Wembley)". 
 
In that unforgettable 1981 FA Cup Final, the silky skills of Ossie and fellow Argentine midfielder Ricky Villa inspired Spurs to their famous victory over Man City. He also helped Spurs to retain the trophy the following year, and to win the UEFA Cup in 1984, and even found time to star in the classic football film Escape to Victory with Bobby Moore, Pelé, Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone. 
 
Thirty years on from those glory days, Ossie has a unique perspective on the football world, through his long career both playing and in management, with the emphasis always on style and entertainment. He also talks about growing up under a military dictatorship, how he was torn between two countries owing to the outbreak of the Falklands War, which claimed the life of one of his cousins, and how that football world has changed over the decades.

Ossie's Dream

Andy Goram

Iain King

This is the story of a genius with flaws. Lots of them. On the field, Andy Goram was a defiant figure between the sticks who, in many ways, defined the history-making nine-in-a-row team that brought so much success to Ibrox; off it, he careered through three divorces and a welter of lurid tabloid headlines sensationalising his hellraising antics. 
 
 In this no-holds-barred account, Goram lifts the lid on his tempestuous life in football, from the Gers' glory days to a fairy-tale chapter with his boyhood heroes: Manchester United. His life in the Old Firm is examined in depth, from the saves that broke former Celtic manager Tommy Burns's heart to a story that was buried until now: Celtic's astonishing bid to sign him. 
 
 Goram's Scotland career ended in bitterness when he walked out on the squad before France 98, and here he smashes the myths that have always surrounded his relationships with Craig Brown and Jim Leighton. 
 
 This is the inside story of the man the fans voted Rangers' greatest-ever goalkeeper. He remains a genius with flaws: a legend simply known as The Goalie.

The Goalie

Leckie Kckeown

Des McKeown started at the top in football and worked his way down. He signed for Celtic in a year when they won the League and the Scottish Cup double. They liked him. He loved them. But from the first day he kicked a ball for money, he was never going to make millions out of the game. Faced with a choice between struggling to break into the Parkhead first team and turning part-time and buliding a career as a salesman, he chose real life. Hundreds of footballers whose ambitions outstripped their abilities have made the same choice as Des McKeown. Hundreds more will one day have it forced upon them. Don't give up the day job is their story. As the priviledged few drain the game of more money, McKeown warns of the consequences for the journeymen who cling to full-time contracts hoping against hope for a slice of the pie. Don't give up the day job is a no-holes-barred account of one season in the lofe of part-time players seen through the eyes of a husband, father, salesman and left-back. (in that order) Can a man who only trains twice a week get as much out of footballing as someone who plays it for a living? Is a hobby that pays 10 per cent of household bills worth putting 90 per cent of our life into?

Don't Give Up The Day Job

A Year in the Life of a Part-Time Footballer

Harry Edgar

Malcolm Reilly

Never before in the UK has a Rugby League man of Malcolm Reilly's legendary status issued such a full and revealling autobiography. Reilly has been a household name in Rugby League for over 30 years -three decades in which he strode like a colossus over the world of this toughest of team sports. He was a champion player, and a champion coach, in both England and Australia - and Reilly reveals one man's personal story behind many of Rugby League's most famous, and infamous, days of the last 30 years, told just as he played his football - with no holds barred. Malcolm Reilly developed a reputation as the most feared player in the game at a time when Rugby League was at its most brutal during the 60's and 70's. His book recalls that club career at home with highly controversial Lions tour in which he starred the last time a British team won the coveted Ashes. Rupert Murdoch's million dollar war to take control of the game, with Malcolm Reilly bang in the middle of it He also describes the fairytale triumph with his Newcastle team in Australia in 1997 followed by the drugs storm that broke around them less than a year later. Reilly has been adapted in this UK version with Harry Edgar, one of the most experienced writers on international affairs in the world of rugby.

Reilly

A Life In Rugby League

Murphy/Wilson

Nobody has ever been able to ignore Alex Murphy. In a glittering rugby league career stretching over forty years - from schoolboy days playing with St Helens, to international success for Great Britain, and years of glory as player, coach and manager of a host of high-profile clubs including Wigan and Warrington - fame and controversy have always been present: Murphy's row with Wigan chairman and one-time friend Maurice Lindsay, when he was accused of trying to strangle him with his own telephone cord; the time Syd Hines head-butted him at Wembley, believing Murphy had taken a dive to get him sent off; his two tours, including the 1958 'Battle of Brisbane', and how he 'spat the dummy', costing himself a third tour. . . All this, and a further fund of tales from the tough world of rugby league, is given Murphy's unique treatment in this uncompromising autobiography. SAINT AND SINNER is the tale of how a liittle man reached the summit of his sport, and helped other little men along the way. The cocky kid - youngest ever to tour with Great Britain, who could have chosen professional football as a career 'if it hadn't been too soft' - is known to millions today as Murph the Mouth: after-dinner speaker, TV commentator, outspoken newspaper columnist and now holder of the OBE, whose love for rugby league has never dwindled.

Saint And Sinner

The Autobiography of a Rugby League Legend

Sid Waddell

'I had not lived in the former pit village of Lynemouth since 1961 but the winding road north from Newcastle will always be the same nostalgic highway, each twist charged with vivid memories and powerful emotions...' 
 
So begins a story full of wonderful humour, emotional candour and hardy tales of tough times - a quietly epic family saga set amid the pit villages of the North East . It stretches from the 1920s, before Sid's parents had even met, to the final closing of the mine and his mother's death in 1999. 
 
Sid paints a picture of a colourful, tight knit community full of good times and hard work, god-fearing women and hard-drinking men. Always dominating the skyline is Auld Betty, the pit head that took the men away each day and, with a prayer, brought them back each evening. Amongst the unforgettable cast of his extended family and friends, we follow the Waddells' attempts to stay afloat and provide a better future and possible escape for youngsters like Sid.

The Road Back Home

A Northern Childhood

Michael Hutchinson

The hilarious true story of an amateur boating adventure. 
 
Yacht racing. A world of privilege and money. Beautiful women, bronzed men, and Simon le Bon explaining that he used to be in a band. 
 
It's not like that for everyone. Somewhere much, much further down the ladder it all looks very different. As a teenager, Michael Hutchinson raced tiny plywood dinghies on Belfast Lough, amid shoals of sewage-eating jellyfish. For him, sailing became the kind of obsession that often as not ends with a psychiatric intervention. Turning pro was his only dream. 
 
Then, at the age of eighteen, driven to despair by his own unremitting mediocrity, he gave up. But he never stopped dreaming about it - what was he missing out on? How good or bad had he really been? Had it really been a wasted youth? At last, fifteen years later, he went back. 
 
Missing the Boat is the story of his comeback season, on the South Coast of England, in Ireland, and in the glamorous resorts of the Mediterranean. It's about the yachts, the people, the regattas, and just what it was like to dive back into a world that had become entirely alien. 
 
Michael Hutchinson won the Best First Book at the British Sports Book Awards.

Missing the Boat

Chasing a Childhood Sailing Dream

Stewart McKinney

Voices from the Back of the Bus provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at international rugby at the height of a golden period. Recounted with genuine warmth and much humour, over a hundred players recall the scrapes, the games, the laughs, the glory and the gritty reality of the pre-professional game. 
 
Packed with true rugby tales from the days when men played purely for the love of the game and of their nation, and multimillion-pound contracts and sponsorship deals were unheard of, this refreshing, revealing and often hilarious collection will inspire sports fans of all generations.

Voices from the Back of the Bus

Tall Tales and Hoary Stories from Rugby's Real Heroes

Rick Broadbent

MotoGP is enjoying a period of unprecedented popularity and Ring of Fire details the acclaim, the heroism and the pressures of riding motorbikes at speeds of more than 200mph. This is a world where manufacturers invest millions and the world champion celebrates by staging mock jail breaks and giving pillion rides to a blow-up doll. One rider warms up for major races by singing Hank Marvin songs on his karaoke machine and a rising Italian star sees the world in terms of black and white energy tubes. Another sees nothing strange in racing with two broken ankles. 
 
Ring of Fire covers the recent history of MotoGP, from American Nicky Hayden spectacularly overturning established champion Valentino Rossi in 2006, through the emergence of wild young Australian Casey Stoner as the new champion in 2007, to the fierce rivalry between them and Spaniards Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo in what would prove to be one of the most closely-contested years of racing in 2008. It gives a behind the scenes look at World Superbike Champion James Toseland's attempts to break into this elite, and looks back at the tradition of reprobates, romance and debauchery in the paddock dating back to the 60s and stars like Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostino. 
 
Rick Broadbent introduces us not just to the stars and the multi-million pound contracts, but also to the officals, mechanics, doctors, team owners and fans who make up this white-knuckle ride of a sport. By turns funny, sad, shocking and uplifting, Ring of Fire brings us face to face with those who battle to emerge unscathed, or who just ignore the pain and ride to win against all odds.

Ring of Fire

Laurent Fignon

'Ah, I remember you: you're the guy who lost the Tour de France by eight seconds!' 
'No monsieur, I'm the guy who won the Tour twice. 
 
The international bestselling autobiography of the legendary French cyclist Laurent Fignon 
 
 Two-time winner of the Tour de France in the early eighties, Laurent Fignon became the star for a new generation. In the 1989 tour, he lost out to his American arch-rival, Greg LeMond, by an agonising eight seconds. 
 
 In this revealing account, the former champion spares nobody, not even himself, and pulls back the curtain on what really went on behind the scenes of this epic sport - the friendships, the rivalries, the betrayals, the parties, the girls and, of course, the performance-enhancing drugs. Fignon's story bestrides a golden age in cycling: a time when the headlines spoke of heroes, not doping, and a time when cyclists were afraid of nothing. 
 
‘Sports book of the year: He's ruthlessly honest, about himself and about cycling, and he provides a gripping insight into an unrelenting hard world’ Independent

We Were Young and Carefree

The Autobiography of Laurent Fignon

Mark Cavendish

Boy Racer steps behind the scenes of the Tour de France. It unmasks the exotic, contradictory, hysterical and brutal world of professional cycling from the compellingly candid viewpoint of someone right in the thick of it. 
 
Written off as 'fat' and 'useless' in his youth, Mark Cavendish is now one of cycling's brightest stars and one of Britain's greatest ever cyclists. Some have called him cocky, but to anyone who doesn't like his style, Mark will simply shrug his shoulders and reply, 'I know I'm good. There's no point lying about it.' 
 
Peers say that they have never seen anyone with Cavendish's hunger for success and while this fearlessness - both in the saddle and on the record - has at times led to controversy, it has also earned him the respect of ever more fans. 
 
In Boy Racer we follow him through the mayhem of the Tour de France in a page-turning journey of pure exhilaration.

Boy Racer

Don Shaw

Clough's War is the story of his epic ascent and decline at Derby County, a club he took in a few short years from nowhere to the top English football and teetering on greatness in Europe, before the whole dream came tumbling down in the national spotlight with his acrimonious resignation in 1973. It is the story of his rise to national fame, his almost messianic adoration at Derby and his jealous political tussle with the chairman Sam Longson and the ultimate fall of Clough's unchecked power. Award-winning script writer and lifelong Rams fan Don Shaw, was the man who, at Clough's behest, ran the campaign to keep Clough at Derby and who found himself almost in the spotlight as much as the great man himself. It is a tale dramatised with all the power of Greek tragedy and the Machiavellian intrigue of All The President's Men, while shedding new light on the Clough legend like no other book before it.

Clough's War

William Fotheringham

Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century, Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo - champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years, he was the first man to win cycling's great double, the Tour de France and Tour of Italy in the same year - and he did it twice. He achieved mythical status for his crushing solo victories, world titles and world records. But his significance extends far beyond his sport. 
 
Coppi's scandalous divorce and controversial early death convulsed a conservative, staunchly Roman Catholic Italy in the 1950s. At a time when adultery was still illegal, Coppi and his lover were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night, excommunicated and forced to face a clamorous legal battle. The ramifications of this case are still being felt today. 
 
In Fallen Angel, acclaimed cycling biographer, William Fotheringham, tells the tragic story of Coppi's life and death - of how a man who became the symbol of a nation's rebirth after the disasters of war died reviled and heartbroken. Told with insight and intelligence, this is a unique portrait of Italy and Italian sport at a time of tumultuous change.

Fallen Angel

The Passion of Fausto Coppi

Chris Gorringe

Wimbledon is a paradox. While outwardly appearing the quintessential English lawn tennis club, as much a part of being British as strawberries and cream or picnics in the park, it is in fact the largest annual outside broadcast operation in the world and a multi-million pound commercial enterprise. Remarkably, an enterprise that generates its profit in just two weeks of the year. 
 
It is also something we do rather well. Which other tennis tournament in the world can describe itself as simply, "The Championships"? 
 
Chris Gorringe is the man who, for twenty-six years, made it all happen. The former chief executive, fondly referred to as "Clockwork Gorringe," has dealt with everything from the 1973 players' boycott, the McEnroe tantrums, and Middle Sunday, to the demands for equal prize money and the Olympic bid. He has witnessed some of the greatest names in the sport producing some of their most dazzling performances - from Navratilova to the Williams sisters, from Borg to Federer - while assisting with the requirements of and demands on today's high-profile professional tennis players. During his tenure, revenue increased from £58,000 in his first year, to £27m in his last. In Holding Court, he charts the unique journey of one of the country's most venerable establishments, where decisions are still made through a committee system dating back to 1868, into the modern era. 
 
For anyone who has ever been captivated by McEnroe v Borg, soaked up the atmosphere in Aorangi Park, or been intrigued by what goes on behind the scenes at SW19, Holding Court is a must-read. Wimbledon is a national institution. When play starts on the first Monday, millions of followers tune in. This book is for them.

Holding Court

Sandy Balfour

What I Love About Cricket is the story of a summer when a 'master' cricket obsessive teaches his novice 'pupil' the wisdom of the game. Sandy Balfour is cast as the supposed master and his sixteen-year-old daughter's new boyfriend - the skateboarding boy wonder - is the reluctant pupil. 
 
This beginner's guide to the infuriatingly perverse game of cricket is a love letter addressed both to 
those who utterly fail to understand it and to those who need reminding why they fell in love in 
the first place. What unfolds is wonderfully observed, very funny and as much about fathers 
and daughters, love and life, as it is about cricket.

What I Love About Cricket

One Man's Vain Attempt to Explain Cricket to a Teenager who Couldn't Give a Toss

Grumpy Monkey

Guillermo Downes Thriller

Guru Guru Pon Chan

Hairy Maclary and Friends

Meet Nathan Byrn. 
 
He's half White Witch, half Black Witch 
His mother was a healer, his father is a killer 
He's been kept in a cage since he was fourteen. 
 
If White Witches are good 
And Black Witches are evil... 
What happens if you are both?

Half Bad

Hammarby Thrillers

Intellectually brilliant, cultured and sophisticated, with refined tastes in art, music and cuisine. And a pure sociopath. This is the series that launched the world’s number one villain – Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal Lecter

Happy Families

Harlem Renaissance Series

Harold Fry

Harry Hole

Harry and the Dinosaurs

Hatchimals

Hattie B, Magical Vet

Hawk series

Hawthorne

He Who Fights With Monsters

Heart Hassle

Heartbreaking romances from Rebecca Yarros

Heartland Trilogy

Heaven Official's Blessing

Heavenly Bodies

Henry Pratt is the epitomy of the great British underdog. Nothing is ever simple in his world, just when it seems things are going right, life throws him another unwanted curve-ball. Join Pratt as he traverses the highs and lows of everyday life in this comic masterpiece.

Henry Pratt

Her Hidden Fire

To some a brilliant warrior, to others a devil in human form; Hereward is as adept in the art of slaughter as the enemies that gather to claim England's throne. With King Edward heirless and ailing, Hereward has been declared an outlaw. What is he willing to risk in order to save the land he loves? 
 
Hereward's tales are of heroism, treachery, rebellion and bloody battles, with William the Bastard never too far away.

Hereward

Heroes of Olympus

Heroes of Olympus Graphic Novels

Hetty Feather was left at a foundling hospital when she was a tiny baby. Having grown up in a loving foster family until she was five, and then finding herself returned to the hospital, she begins to question who her actual family are, and is determined to stop at nothing to find out where she came from. Jacqueline Wilson’s acclaimed series follows Hetty and her friend Diamond as they work their way up from their lowly backgrounds to become stars, overcoming loss, unkind bosses and flirtatious boys.

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