Alexander Aciman

Alexander Armstrong is one half of the comedy duo Armstrong &amp; Miller who had a regular series on Channel 4 from 1997 to 2001 and then returned with three series of the BAFTA winning Armstrong &amp; Miller Show on BBC1 in 2007. Alexander’s many straight acting roles have included Love Life, Life Begins, Mutual Friends and the sitcomHunderby. He frequently hosts Have I Got News For You?, is the voice of Danger Mouse and the narrator of CBeebies cult hit Hey Duggee. Alexander is also a presenter on Classic FM and has a number one bestselling classical album to his name, but is probably best known for presenting the highly successful daytime quiz show Pointless, now in its twelfth series.

Alexander Armstrong

Alexander Barabanov

Alexander Betts

Alexander Breeze

Alexander C. Karp is co-founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies Inc. The company, established in Palo Alto, California, in 2003, builds software and artificial intelligence capabilities that are used by defense and intelligence agencies in the United States and allied nations around the world, as well as companies across the commercial sector. Karp is a graduate of Haverford College and Stanford Law School. He earned his doctorate in social theory from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

Alexander C.Karp

Alexander Chee won a Whiting Award for his first novel, Edinburgh, and is a recipient of the NEA Fellowship in Fiction and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Ledig House and Civitella Ranieri. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, and NPR, among others, and he is a contributing editor at the New Republic. He has recently been selected as a prestigious LA Times critic-at-large. He lives in New York City.

Alexander Chee

Alexander Douglas was born in Canberra, Australia where he studied music and philosophy. He now teaches the history of philosophy and the philosophy of economics at the University of St Andrews. He has published two books on the philosophy of Benedict de Spinoza and one on the philosophy of debt. He has grown increasingly interested in combining ideas from Western and East Asian philosophy. He loves music, literature, history, and engineering. He lives with his wife in Edinburgh.

Alexander Douglas

Alexander Freed is the author of the Star Wars Alphabet Squadron trilogy, Star Wars: Battle­front: Twilight Company and Star Wars: Rogue One and has written many short stories, comic books, and videogames. Born near Philadelphia, he currently re­sides in San Francisco, California. He enjoys the city’s culture, history, and secrets, but he misses snow.

Alexander Freed

Alexander Garros

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Humboldt

Alexander Kent's great interest in the ships and men of the eighteenth century navy was aroused when he was still at school. Although he attended fleet reviews and explored modern warships and dockyards with his father, he found that the great days of square riggers and battles at close quarters captured his imagination. H.M.S. Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, was always high on his list of regular visits. 
 
He served in the Royal Navy as a young man, and saw action in the Battle of the Atlantic and other major theatres of war, but his first love of the great days of sail remained unshaken. 
 
Now firmly established as a leading writer of authentic sea stories, he was the author of twenty-eight acclaimed books featuring Richard Bolitho. Under his own name, Douglas Reeman, and in the course of a career spanning forty-five years, he wrote over thirty novels and two non-fiction books. He died in January 2017.

Alexander Kent

Alexander Lee

Alexander Lernet-Holenia was born in Vienna in 1897. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War and became a protégé of Rainer Maria Rilke. During his life he wrote poetry, novels, plays and was a successful screenwriter. His books were included on the first Nazi blacklist and subsequently burned, but after the end of the Second World War, he again became a vital figure in Austrian cultural life.

Alexander Lernet-Holenia

Alexander MacLeod was born in Inverness, Cape Breton in Canada. His first collection, Light Lifting, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won an Atlantic Book Award. In 2019, he won an O Henry Prize for his short story, 'Lagomorph', originally published in Granta, and the first story in Animal Person. MacLeod lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

Alexander MacLeod

Alexander Mackendrick

Alex Maskill was born in Watford, and grew up both there and in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He's has just completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Leicester and now has a degree in Politics. He hopes to follow this with an MSc in Computer Science. 
The Hive Construct is his first novel and won the 2013 Terry Pratchett Prize.

Alexander Maskill

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Then, after the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers through the world. These include the Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series, and the Corduroy Mansions series, novels which started life as a delightful (but challenging to write) cross-media serial, written on the website of the Telegraph Media Group. This series won two major cross-media awards - Association of Online Publishers Digital Publishing Award 2009 for a Cross Media Project and the New Media Age award. In addition to these series, Alexander writes stand-alone books, including The Forever Girl; Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party and Emma - a reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel. He is also the author of a book on Edinburgh, A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh, as well as several collections of short stories, academic works, and over thirty books for children. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year Award in 2004 and a CBE for service to literature in 2007. He holds honorary doctorates from nine universities in Europe and North America. In March of 2011 he received an award from the President of Botswana for his services through literature to that country. Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh. He is married to a doctor and has two daughters.

Alexander McCall-Smith

Alexander Monro

Alexander Norman has written a number of books with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has known him personally for over 30 years. He regularly gives lectures on Tibetan history and culture and is fascinated by the country and its people. He lives in the UK.

Alexander Norman

Alexander Piatigorsky

Alexander Pope was born on 21st May 1688.He was brought up a Roman Catholic at a time where the laws of England were prejudicial towards Catholics. He suffered tuberculosis as a child and was crippled by it. He never grew taller than 4'6". He first published The Rape of the Lock when he was twenty-three years old in 1712. He later added to it in 1714 and 1717. It was written to reconcile two families who had fallen out over a similar incident where a young Lord Petre had cut off a lock of hair from Arabella Fermor's head. Pope went on to translate the works of Homer and produce The Dunciad and An Essay on Man. Pope died on 30th May 1744.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Roy

Alexander Shannon

Alexander Sinclair

Alexander Slater is an author and illustrator from London who loves stories with big ideas and bigger heart. He holds a First Class degree in Graphic Design and Illustration from the University of Hertfordshire and has earned several awards in design and cartooning. When he’s not doodling or daydreaming, he can be found cooking, walking his adorable cockapoo, Bailey, or entertaining his millions of followers on his TikTok account @AlexRabbit

Alexander Slater

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Brian Corcoran

Kieran Shannon

'You might never have seen a hurling game in your life, but within ten minutes of seeing Brian Corcoran play, you'd know and say, "That man with that helmet is special." He just has an authority, a grace, a presence that elevates him from everything else which surrounds him' - Ger Loughnane 
 
The year 2006 was about more than an historic three-in-a-row bid for the Cork hurlers; it marked the last year in the inter-county career of probably the county's finest and most revered hurler of the past 20 years. In Every Single Ball, Brian Corcoran gives us a riveting insight into the workings of the most professional team the GAA has ever known as they sought hurling immortality. He also takes us through, in his refreshingly candid and sincere way, one of the most varied and lengthy careers of modern times and the personalities, highs, trials and tribulations he encountered along the way. He brings us into the training grounds and dressing-rooms of Billy Morgan, Larry Tompkins, Canon O'Brien and Jimmy Barry-Murphy, recalls the torment and frustration that caused him to walk away from hurling at only 28 and reveals how, just like his hero, Michael Jordan, he came back and fell in love again with his sport and with winning. 
 
Quite simply, Every Single Ball is the story of one of Ireland's greatest sporting comebacks, sportsmen and sports teams.

Every Single Ball

The Brian Corcoran Story

Ian Cheeseman

Most Manchester City supporters regard Colin Bell as their club's best ever player. He graced the midfield during their greatest years as they won all domestic and European honours, and represented England 48 times before a serious knee injury ended his career prematurely when he was just 29. 
 
Now, in this revealing autobiography, 'King Colin' has opened up. He talks about never knowing his mother, who died when he was a baby, and of being brought up by his aunt and then his father and older sister. He then leads us through the glory years, singles out his greatest opponents and compares the modern game with the era he dominated, before sharing his views on the infamous tackle in a Manchester derby that ended his footballing dreams. In a remarkable development, he reveals for the first time his private battle against cancer and explains how this book has helped to save his life. 
 
With tributes from the likes of Malcolm Allison, Sir Geoff Hurst and Sir Bobby Charlton, Colin Bell - Reluctant Hero is the story of a footballer whose brilliance on the field demanded adulation but who was never comfortable in the spotlight. A player who truly preferred to let his feet do the talking.

Colin Bell - Reluctant Hero

The Autobiography of a Manchester City and England Legend

Jacqueline O'Brien

Ivor Herbert

Vincent O'Brien is a horse-racing legend. Recently voted horse racing's 'greatest of all time', ahead of familiar names like Lester Piggott, the Queen Mother and Sheikh Mohammed, O'Brien won every race that matters in Britain and Ireland over his fifty-year career and is without doubt the best and most versatile racehorse trainer the sport has ever known. 
 
O'Brien is the only man to have trained three consecutive Grand National winners. He won three consecutive Gold Cups and three consecutive Champion Hurdles. He has had extraordinary success in flat racing too - six Derby winners, three winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, three King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners and twenty-five races at Royal Ascot. He trained some of the best-known racehorses in the history of the sport - including Nijinsky, winner of the Triple Crown in 1970. 
 
His life has been a fascinating one. From humble beginnings in County Cork, he chose to train racehorses as his career - much to the benefit of the sport - and went on to create the legendary Ballydoyle Stables. Here his extraordinary story is told by his wife, Jacqueline, and distinguished racing writer Ivor Herbert. Lavishly illustrated with her personal and public photographs that span his amazing life, this book is a must for anyone with an interest in horses or racing.

Vincent O'Brien - The Official Biography

Alistair Tait

Seve is the most extrovert player Europe has ever produced. Playboy good looks along with a magnetism that attracted non-golfers to the game made him the biggest drawing card Europe has ever had. He emerged on the world scene with typical élan, hitting one of the most outrageous shots ever seen at the 1976 Open Championship. Three years later he became the youngest Open Champion of the modern era when he won the first of his five major championships. Ballesteros started Europe's domination of the Majors throughout the 80s and 90s, paving the way for Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal. His play in the Ryder Cup, fuelled by an intense dislike for Americans, helped restore Europe's pride in the event. Driven by 
Basque pride and with a fiery Latin temperament, Seve has often let his heart 
rule his head. 
 
Seve is the remarkable story of one of the game's most fascinating characters.

Seve

A Biography of Severiano Ballesteros

Gary Imlach

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
 
A poignant and moving account of the author’s search for the man his father was and the life he led as a well-known footballer, blending the personal and the historical into an unforgettable story 
 
 Stewart Imlach was an ordinary neighbourhood soccer star of his time. 
 
 A brilliant winger who thrilled the crowd on Saturdays, then worked alongside them in the off-season; who represented Scotland in the 1958 World Cup and never received a cap for his efforts; who was Man of the Match for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup Final, and was rewarded with the standard offer - £20 a week, take it or leave it. 
 
 Gary Imlach grew up a privileged insider at Goodison Park when Stewart moved into coaching. He knew the highlights of his father's career by heart. But when his dad died he realised they were all he knew. He began to realise, too, that he'd lost the passion for football that his father had passed down to him. In this book he faces his growing alienation from the game he was born into, as he revisits key periods in his father's career to build up a picture of his football life - and through him a whole era. 
 
‘The most emotionally charged and moving sports book I've ever read’ Daily Mail

My Father And Other Working Class Football Heroes

Barney Ronay

Fast approaching 30, Barney Ronay is a Sunday League left back with some tough choices to make. Is staying in with his girlfriend and Gardeners' World on a Friday night doing much for his match fitness? Would he be better off back with his best mate Dan in the bachelor pad of pizza boxes, lager and Playstation into the early hours? And at their age can they still afford to spend weekends in their desperate struggle to keep Bolingbroke Athletic afloat? Shouldn't they be growing up, getting married, spending their Sundays at Homebase? 
 
This is the hilarious story of a team in early mid-life crisis, hiding from responsibility in the strange masochism at the ugly end of the beautiful game - the smell of Deep Heat, naked fat men, hangovers and the eternal belief that next week you might just rediscover your first touch.

Any Chance Of A Game?

Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi is the greatest living motorcyclist. His legions of fans adore him (over 4,000 turned up to see him in Leicester Square last March). He has fought through the 125 and 250 class groups to win the World Championships five times and has been ranked in the top three places at the World Championships for the last nine years. He is currently the MotoGP World Champion, and has won on a Honda bike - considered the best - and most recently on a Yamaha - considered the worst. He is arguably the greatest racer ever - and certainly the most entertaining - his post race antics and cheeky personality have won him as many fans as his on-track prowess. He is the kind of star who only comes along once in a while - a Muhammad Ali or Pele - hugely talented, massively driven, yet also scorching charismatic, unnervingly rebellious and totally endearing - a twentieth-century version of the hell-raisers of old. 
 
All who know Rossi say he is a consummate professional, that he works harder than anyone could ever realise, but that most of all, he still loves what he does. He just seems to win more because he's still enjoying himself so much.He is infamous for his on the edge riding, pushing himself and his bike to the very limits of what they can do, and screaming around racecourses in record times. But he is also well known for his good looks, his techni-coloured hair and cheeky humour - and for his sheer youthful exuberance in victory - his post-match victory laps have become a thing of legend. Previously he has driven victory laps in full beach gear, including flip-flops, with a man sized chicken riding pillion (and also, in a jibe to Max Biaggi who had an unceremonious break-up with the model Naomi Campbell, with a life size doll of Claudia Schiffer strapped on behind him.) 
 
His warmth of character coupled with his amazing career statistics to date - his first GP win aged 17, his first world title at 18, his first 500 class win at 21 and his first MotoGP win at 22 - mean that this young man has the motorcycle racing world at his feet. His raw talent coupled with his firm belief in the 'entertainment' aspect of his sport and the importance of his fans, means that he really is the David Beckham of bikes - he has done the near impossible and transcended his own territory. His appeal - being at the top of his game without being a purist, still being seen to be young and excited by the game, and being a perfectionist on and off the track when it comes to his driving - means that he really is one of the superstars of the sporting world.

What If I Had Never Tried It

George Best

'We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others' George Best 
 
Written in the months before he died, Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths is George's farewell letter to the great footballing era in which he burned so brightly - a personal history of the golden years before TV and agents changed everything. From the breaking of the maximum wage to the cusp of the first million-pound player, it follows the triumphs and tragedies of every season from 1960 to 1974. It is the story of our greatest footballing generation - Greaves, Moore, Law, Charlton, Osgood, Lorimer, Jennings, Hurst and, of course, Best himself.

Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths

The inside story of football's golden era

Ellen MacArthur

Just after 10.00 on the night of February 7th 2004, Ellen MacArthur crossed an imaginary line in the sea off Brittany to become the fastest person ever to sail solo round the world.  The record was held by a frenchman, Francis Joyon.  He'd slashed over 20 days off the previous record and many thought his extraordinary new benchmark would stand for 10 years or more.  Most experts thought that the record would be beyond MacArthur.  But in a superhuman effort that forced her to dig deeper than ever before, she proved the doubters wrong.  Her effort captured the world's imagination and the scenes that greeted her return to Falmouth were euphoric.  She had become, some claimed, the finest sailor her country had every produced.  Drawing on logs, emails, sound and video diaries, this beautifully designed, fully illustrated book captures the drama, excitement, danger, joy and tears of a truly extraordinary achievement - in Ellen's own words.

Race Against Time

John Bryant

'If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon' - Emil Zatopek 
 
The London Marathon salutes 25 years of the London Marathon by exploring the incredible physical and mental challenge that lies at the very heart of marathon running. It begins with the author standing on the start line at Blackheath for the very first London Marathon in March 1981. And it ends 26 miles and 25 years later, as the author emerges, still running, past Buckingham Palace and on through the miles and memories to the finish. 
 
From the legend of Pheidippides and the mystery of Spiridon Louis - who won the first modern Olympic marathon in 1896 - to the agony of Paula Radcliffe, reduced to tears on the long road to Athens more than a century later, this is a story of dreams, pain, struggle and achievement. The courage and the craziness of the characters who for 25 years have run the streets of London, have turned this race into the greatest marathon in the world. 
 
The London Marathon is a testament to their endeavour, and to the spirit that leads them each spring to tackle their own suburban Everest. This is their story.

The London Marathon

Jim Perrin

Don Whillans has an iconic significance for generations of climbers. His epoch-making first ascent of Annapurna's South Face, achieved with Dougal Haston in 1970, remains one of the most impressive climbs ever made - but behind this and all his other formidable achievements lies a tough, recalcitrant reality: the character of the man himself. 
 
Whillans carried within himself a sense of personal invincibility, forceful, direct and uncompromising. It gave him sporting superstar status - the flawed heroism of a Best, a McEnroe, an Ali. In his own circle, his image was the working-class hero on the rock-face, laconic and bellicose, ready to go to war with the elements or with any human who crossed his path on a bad day.

The Villain

The Life of Don Whillans

Andy Cave

At the age of sixteen, Andy Cave followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps and became a miner - one of the last recruits into a dying world. Every day he would descend 3,000 feet into Grimethorpe pit. 
But at weekends Andy escaped from the pithead to a very different world - testing his nerve on the cliffs and mountains around Britain, and forging endearing friendships with his new companions. 
Enduring the 1984-5 miners' strike - the guilt, the broken friendships, the poverty - Andy continued to indulge his passion. In 1986, after much soul searching, he quit his job as a miner in order to devote himself to mountaineering. At the same time he decided to educate himself, acquiring almost from a standing start academic qualifications including a PhD in socio-linguistics. This extraordinary twin odyssey is graphically recalled in this remarkable book. 
In the Himalaya in 1997 Andy achieved a courageous first ascent on one of the steepest and most difficult summits in the world - the North Face of Changabang. Seventeen days later, he and only two of his team-mates crawled into base camp, frostbitten, emaciated and traumatised. His account of this terrifying experience provides a dramatic climax to this compelling story.

Learning To Breathe

Bill McLaren

Just before the start of the 2002 Wales v Scotland match in Cardiff, the stadium announcer asked people to stand and acknowledge Bill McLaren's great contribution to the sport. The whole ground rose, leaving McLaren choking back the tears. Then came a voice in his ear: 'Cue, Bill...' 
 
Coping with his emotions on that day was obviously not straightforward, even for a commentator of Bill McLaren's experience, used to being caught up in some of the most dramatic moments rugby has ever seen. But Bill also talks frankly about the greatest tragedy of his life: the death of his younger daughter from cancer at 46, the three years of agony and the trauma of her final day. Bill wanted to stay at her bedside but she insisted he go and carry out a commentating duty in Edinburgh on the Saturday afternoon. He did so, rushed back to the hospital, but she had died that afternoon while he was on air. 
 
McLaren, himself, had almost died of TB in his youth and he tells of the days and nights when he hid under the sheets in bed at the Scottish hospital where he was kept for 19 months, 'crying myself to sleep each night as they took away my friends who had died that day. I was certain I would be next'. He has excellent memories of his war years and delves deep to recall some harrowing times as a forward observation spotter when he came within inches of being killed by a German sniper. Later, he also remembers leading his men one day into a small northern Italian town where they discovered 1500 corpses piled up in the square. 'That was the day I became a man, rather quickly,' he says. He was 21. 
 
As well reliving the highlights of his illustrious career as a commentator, Bill talks of the game today and his regrets that rugby went professional. He is a fierce critic of what this has led to and fears for the future health and safety of rugby players because he regards the modern game as dangerously physical. His story amounts to a history of the game itself and reaffirms McLaren's status as something of a global treasure.

My Autobiography

Muhammad Ali

Hana Yasmeen Ali

In this poignant, moving book, Muhammad Ali shares the beliefs he has come to live by and which he has passed on to his children. Some of the wisdom is his own; some comes from the teachings of true Islam, from his spiritual studies, and from people he has met in the course of his extraordinary life. Here, as he recalls his early days as a young warrior in Louisville, Kentucky, and his meteoric rise to fame as Heavyweight Champion of the World, a title he won three times, he tells of the many battles he won and lost, both inside and outside the ring and his conversion to Islam in the 1960s. Now, working tirelessly as a worldwide ambassador for peace, he talks of the damage caused when religion is used to tear people apart, the essential need for unity in this troubled world, and how his faith sustains him on this, the most important journey of his life - the journey to forgiveness and peace. Together with his daughter Hana, in this timely spiritual memoir Ali draws upon his rich reserve of notes, tapes and journals, and writes with compassion, warmth and, of course, humour on how we can liberate mind, body and spirit when we pursue and embrace the one essential truth - love.

The Soul Of A Butterfly

Ruy Castro

The World Cup Finals, Sweden 1958. Brazil vs the fearsome USSR. 
 
In the opening three minutes - 'the greatest three minutes in the history of football' - one man wrote himself into the record books. Brazil went on to win the cup, and, in Garrincha, a star was born. 
 
 Garrincha was the unlikeliest of footballers - with a right leg that turned inwards and a left that turned out, but with a ball at his feet he had the poise of an angel. He played for the love of the game, uninterested in money, and ignoring tactical advice. And he was as wild off the pitch as he was mesmerising on it - mischievous, audacious and dripping with sex appeal. 
 
 It was his affair and subsequent marriage to the singer Elza Soares that caught the imagination of a nation - their mouth-watering combination of soccer and samba made them the toast of 1960s Rio. But by the age of forty-nine, Garrincha was dead, destroyed by the excesses that made him so compelling. 
 
‘Funny and moving, zealously researched and lovingly told’ Daily Telegraph

Garrincha

The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero

Gavin Newsham

Legend has it that one of the things you really should see if you're a true golf fan is the swing - the awesome 'killer swing' - of John Patrick Daly. 
 
Rewind to August 1991 and the USPGA Championship at Crooked Stick, Indianapolis. Twenty-five-year-old rookie pro John Daly tees off as an eleventh-hour replacement for Nick Price and blasts his way to a spectacular and entirely unexpected victory. 
 
Now fully updated, Gavin Newsham's award-winning biography examines how that triumph, which, which should have signalled the start of the big time for Daly, instead prompted a shocking descent into alcoholism, gambling addiction and more indidents and accidents than most people encounter in one lifetime - maybe two. 
 
He has been arrested, suspended, and seen his world ranking plummet to 507. Yet, his no-nonsense 'grip it and rip it' philosophy has struck a chord with golf fans the world over and his length off the tee is legendary. 'It's all good because I'm still living,' he shrugs. Despite his trials and tribulations, John Daly remains one of the biggest draws in the game.

John Daly: The Biography

Matthew Pinsent

With his last-gasp victory as part of the Great British coxless four team at the Athens Olympics, Matthew Pinsent clinched an historic fourth Olympic Gold to add to the three already won with his legendary rowing partner Steve Redgrave. In an uniquely exciting and evocative autobiography, Pinsent interweaves the build-up to Athens 2004 with the extraordinary story of his career and unforgettable partnership with Redgrave. Plucked from obscurity at the age of 20, told to partner his hero, and trained to within an inch of his life, Pinsent's story is uniquely revealing about what it takes to be a champion and the mixed blessings of success. Culminating with a nail-biting final chapter detailing the team's extraordinary victory in Athens in blow-by-blow detail, A Lifetime in a Race is a sports book in a different mould.

A Lifetime In A Race

Will Greenwood

Known as Shaggy to his mates, Greenwood is one of rugby's and international sport's most engaging, intelligent, outspoken and witty characters. A Lancastrian to the tips of this size 12 boots, the giant centre has been an automatic choice in the England XV since his debut against Australia in 1997. 
 
A few months earlier he looked set to become only the third uncapped Englishman to play for the British Lions when he came within a whisker of losing his life after he was speared to the ground in a heavy tackle, lost consciousness and swallowed his tongue. 
 
After taking several months to recover he quickly made an impact at international level following a widespread clamour in the press for his call-up to the England side. An elegant riposte to the old jibe that England rugby players lack guile and imagination, the Harlequins' and former Leicester centre has brought a shimmering, magical quality to his team's back play, opening up defences with clever angled running, superb distribution and a gravity-defying ability to stay up in the tackle. 
 
Greenwood also featured in England's doomed Rugby World Cup campaign in 1999 before playing a central role in the team's dramatic triumph in Australia four years later. 
 
His life off the pitch has been no less eventful, he and his wife Caro having experienced extreme despair and joy in recent years with the loss of one son, Freddie, and the birth of another, Archie.

Will

The Autobiography of Will Greenwood

"Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event nine, the one mile: first, #41, Roger Bannister ... with a time which will be a new English Native, British National, All-Comers, European, British Empire and World Record. The time was three..." 
 
As the announcer spoke those fateful words, the crowd roared, and the century-long quest to run 'the world's greatest race' was finally at an end. 
 
For decades, amateur athletes like the American Lon Myers, a stick-thin hypochondriac who was sick before and after every race, yet still held every US record from 50 yards to the mile, and Joe Binks, an English journalist who only trained once per week, dominated the field. Paavo Nurmi, the 'Phantom Finn', won nine Olympic gold medals and set so many world records that statisticians still argue over the total, but even he couldn't breach the magic four-minute mark. 
 
As competition intensified, the Swede Gunder 'the Wonder' Haegg ran the mile in 4:01.4 - but it took the legendary Roger Bannister and his two co-runners to finally accomplish 'the most significant sporting achievement of the twentieth century'. It took a wholesale reimagining of running itself, as each generation built on the discoveries and secrets of the last, until the fateful day finally arrived, and an impossible dream became reality: 
 
6 May 1954. Roger Bannister. 3:59.4.

3:59.4

The Quest to Break the Four Minute Mile

David Tremayne

Generations are familiar with the haunting black and white television footage of Donald Campbell somersaulting to his death in his famous Bluebird boat on Coniston Water in January, 1967. It has become an iconic image of the decade. His towering achievements, and the drama of his passing, are thus part of the national psyche. 
 
But what of the man himself? 
 
The son of the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell who was famous for being the ultimate record-breaker of the inter-war years - he broke the land speed record nine times and the water speed record four times with his Bluebird cars and boats - Donald Campbell was born to speed. He was outgoing and flamboyant, yet carefully orchestrated the image he presented to the world. Some saw him as a playboy adventurer; others, such as the radio producer on the twenty-first anniversary of his death, as a reckless daredevil with a death wish. He was known to take solace in extra-marital dalliances, and was obsessed with spiritualism. And in his final years, battered by a 360-mph accident while attempting the land record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and his prolonged and anti-climactic subsequent effort on the treacherous Lake Eyre in Australia, Campbell appeared a haggard and often frightened man. He had become trapped on his record-breaker's treadmill as he continually sought to prove himself to his illustrious father, in whose long shadow he felt forever trapped. 
 
DONALD CAMPBELL: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK paints a fascinating portrait of an intense, complex, superstitious yet abnormally brave man who was driven not only by the desire to prove that he was worthy of the mantle of his father, but also by his fervent and unswerving desire to keep Britain at the forefront of international speed endeavour. This book generates a unique insight into how his desperate fear of failure finally lured him into taking one risk too many.

Donald Campbell

The Man Behind The Mask

Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain was acclaimed as England's best cricket captain since Mike Brearley. Under his leadership, a side more famous for its batting collapses and ability to seize defeat from the jaws of victory discovered its backbone. With coach Duncan Fletcher he put some steel into the side; they became a difficult team to beat. 
 
Hussain wore his heart on his sleeve: railing against complacency, defying critics of his place in the batting line-up and making a principled stand at the last World Cup when the ECB seemed incapable of it. 
 
Expect passion, integrity, insight and candour in his eagerly awaited autobiography.

Playing With Fire

Gary Edwards

In his dedication to Leeds United, Gary Edwards has no rivals. He has seen every Leeds game since 17 January 1968, home and away. League, Cup and Europe. And pre-season friendlies.* Hell, he even watches the reserves in his spare time. Following Leeds, he's been there, done that and designed the T-shirt. Although a painter and decorator-cum-signwriter-cum-cartoonist, he's never taken a break from his life as a full-time football fan. He's made a name for himself covering over red paint with white for free. He's visited every country in Europe and flown all over the rest of the world to watch Leeds play. If Leeds organised a five-a-side on the moon, he'd be on the first shuttle flight there. Travelling the world to watch hundreds of players run around acres of grass, he's also found time to drink gallons of ale, see oceans of flesh and protect hundreds of animals. He's saved lobsters in Barcelona, clay pigeons in Worksop, frogs in Kuala Lumpur and worms - yes, worms - in Yorkshire. He's been shot at in Greece, run over in Denmark, frightened the king in Sweden and had a beer with an elephant in Bangkok. All this and still found the time to never miss a match or another chance to rid the world of the evil that is red in all its forms. Behind him are almost four decades of Leeds, lunacy, laughter and white paint.

Paint it White

Following Leeds Everywhere

Ronald Reng

Ronald Reng traces German footballer Lars Leese’s stratospheric rise from computer software salesman to Premiership goalie, and his equally alarming descent 
 
Plucked from obscurity and playing in one of the most important leagues in the world, Leese experienced in real life what thousands of boys - and men - can only dream of: stepping out of the crowd and onto a Premiership pitch. 
 
At the age of 28, German goalkeeper Lars Leese was catapulted from a minor league football field somewhere near Cologne to a small industrial town in the north of England. Something of a culture shock, certainly, but nothing compared to finding himself in goal for Barnsley playing the mighty Liverpool at Anfield in front of over 45,000 spectators. Reng’s narrative is an indispensable antidote to the traditional footballing biography and a unique - and at times shocking - outsider's view of English life. Not since you last read the back pages of the News of the World will you have seen such an accurate picture of life as a Premiership footballer. 
 
‘Eye-opening exposé of life at an English club’ Independent

Keeper of Dreams

One Man's Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership

Denis Law

In the 1960s, Denis Law was the king of Old Trafford. A goal-scoring genius, Law attacked the game (and the occasional opponent) with a dedication and enthusiasm which held his legions of loyal subjects in devoted awe. The deadly triumvirate of Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton swept opposition from its path, and led Manchester United to win the FA Cup in 1963 and the League in 1965 and 1967. 
 
Born in Aberdeen in 1940, Law played his first professional game for Huddersfield in 1956. He moved to Manchester City before being among the very first British players to play on the continent of Europe, joining Torino in 1961. It was in August 1962 that Law moved back to Manchester, this time to United, for a record transfer fee of £115,000. He immediately won the hearts of the Old Trafford crowd by scoring twice in his début game. Many more goals were to follow: 160 in 222 matches, many of them spectacular, all of them executed with Law's trademark panache. 
 
Law was European footballer of the year in 1964 and went on to win 55 caps for Scotland. Many of these were titanic clashes with the Auld Enemy, England, including the now legendary 3-2 defeat of the then World Cup-holders at Wembley in 1967. 
 
The King tells the story of an Aberdeen boy who rose to the very pinnacle of footballing excellence from humble beginnings. Packed with hilarious and revelatory behind-the-scenes stories and peopled by Law's fellow football legends like Matt Busby, George Best and Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law's book takes the reader back to the game's glory days. In so doing, we learn why, to his legions of fans, Denis Law was, and will forever remain, the King.

The King

Tim Adams

Read a fan's eye view of one of tennis's most notorious stars, and an exploration into the idea of sporting obsession. 
 
The perfect nostalgic treat for any Wimbledon fan. 
 
The greatest sports stars characterise their times. They also help to tell us who we are. John McEnroe, at his best and worst, encapsulated the story of the eighties. His improvised quest for tennis perfection, and his inability to find a way to grow up, dramatised the volatile self-absorption of a generation. His matches were open therapy sessions, and they allowed us all to be armchair shrinks. 
 
 Tim Adams sets out to explore what it might have meant to be John McEnroe during those times, and in his subsequent lives, and to define exactly what it is we want from our sporting heroes: how we require them to play out our own dramas; how the best of them provide an intensity that we can measure our own lives by. Talking to McEnroe, his friends and rivals, and drawing on a range of reference, he presents a book that is both a fan's-eye portrait of the most vivid player ever to pick up a racket, and an original study of the idea of sporting obsession.

On Being John McEnroe

Michael Parkinson: 'What was the nearest to kick-off that you made love to a woman?'George Best: 'Er- I think it was half-time actually'George Best was the first celebrity footballer and to many the greatest British player ever. In Scoring at Half-Time he gathers together his favourite memories, stories and anecdotes from his experiences in and out of the game over the last forty years. No dressing room door is left unopened, no player's bar tale untold and no secret kept in this fond, humorous look at football's golden era from the man who was usually there when it happened. Inside stories and lurid tales about George, Bobby, Denis, Nobby and Fergie amongst others. Scoring at Half-Time will delight anyone who has ever wanted to spend time in the company of the footballing legend.

Scoring At Half-Time

Adventures On and Off the Pitch

Sam Torrance

Sam Torrance is one of the most popular and charismatic golfers in the world. He has spent the last three decades at the top of the professional game, but it is his exploits in the Ryder Cup that are truly astounding. As a player, he is famous for his winning putt for Europe on the 18th green at the Belfry in 1985, which secured Europes first Ryder Cup victory for 28 years. And it was as captain of the team that Sam was to cap his glorious career, when on the 29th September 2002 Europe regained the Ryder Cup. Captained by Torrance to devastating affect, the European team defeated the Americans by 3 points with Torrance taking a gamble by putting his best players out first.    In his autobiography, Sam, who turns 50 this year, and his life-long friend and Daily Mail sportswriter Alan Fraser, tell the story of a fascinating life  the highlights and the low points of a remarkable 30 years in golf.

Sam The Autobiography Of Sam Torrance

Mick Quinn

Oliver Harvey

Mick Quinn, the boy from a Liverpool council estate dubbed 'Little Beirut', always loved his birds, booze and betting. They said Mick had a sixth sense for great accuracy in his playing days - he could find a party from any range. Quinn says he only put £50 on each horse race - but liked to stay in the bookies for twenty races a day! 
 
Sentenced in 1987 to three weeks in prison for twice driving whilst banned, Mick's been accused of punching Peter Schmeichel on the football pitch and John Fashanu off it. On retirement, though, Quinn switched to horse racing, the Sport of Kings, but controversy led the blue bloods of racing to hang the scouse oik out to dry and he was suspended from training for two and a half years. 
 
Who Ate All The Pies? is the funniest and most honest football book you'll read for a long, long time.

Who Ate All The Pies? The Life and Times of Mick Quinn

J Cooper Ramo

Aerobatic pilots pull through impossibly elegant figures, twisting their planes at hundreds of miles per hour. In a bad year no sport kills more of its participants. To fly well you must depart the land of the possible and enter the place of pure faith. In this book, the author places the seductive art of aerobatic flying within a larger context of the buzz of extreme sports. It is partly an autobigraphical journey through his own ambition to transform himself from an everyday flyer into a serious competitive pilot capable of winning the US national championships, and partly the unforgettable life stories of the greatest aerobatic geniuses who redefined what it is possible to do in the air with a plane. People like Leo Loundenslager, a mild mannered American Airlines pilot who flew figures so hard they made his eyes bleed as he whimpered with pain in the cockpit. This book is an exploration, not simply of a pilot's physical battle against gravity, but of his dream of perfection and his quest for faith.

No Visible Horizon: Surviving the World's Most Dangerous Sport

When Ellen finished the Vendee Globe, yachting's toughest race aged just 24 the nation took her to it's heart. The depth of the affection for Ellen is extraordinary - she makes people feel like they can do anything! 
 
This is her story, written intrue Ellen style, in her own words, without the help of a ghost writer. 
 
Passionate, dramatic and and deeply affecting, her story will move and inspire all who read it.

Taking on the World

Jack Stalwart

Jack Tanner

Jack and Millie

Jackson Brodie is a private investigator, originally from Yorkshire. A former soldier and policeman he now makes his money working from investigating infidelity and finding missing cats. Jackson's tough-guy exterior belies a deeply empathetic heart. He's unable to resist coming to the rescue and increasingly he becomes a magnet for the bereaved, the lost and the dysfunctional. His ability to connect comes from his own tragic childhood that still haunts him. 
 
Jackson Brodie has appeared in four of Kate Atkinson's novels. Each can be read in isolation but are best enjoyed in order of publication: Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News?, Started Early, Took My Dog.

Jackson Brodie

Jacksonville Rays

Jacky Ha-Ha Series

Jake Cake

Jamaal Target

James Beck

James Bond 007

Jane Smith

Japanese Classics

Meet the hilarious British dilettante Bertram 'Bertie' Wooster who can't seem to help finding himself in the middle of awkward social situations, calling upon his valet Jeeves to escape embarrassment.

Jeeves & Wooster

Jenny Q

Jess Tennant

Joe Rat Adventures

Joey Pigza

Johnny Maxwell

Jon Katz

Jonathon Payne & David Jones

Joseph Stark

Journey into Space

Jumpman

Post-graduation, Allyson Healey decided to embark on a three week tour of Europe. It all goes according to plan until she meets Willem. He is everything she is not; free spirited, a risk taker. She allows herself to be swept away by him for just 24 hours, and then returns home the next day. Willem, determined to find her, puts his trust in fate and travels the world hoping that somewhere he will come across her. This sweepingly romantic trio of novels is filled with emotion, romance and a life affirming belief in fate.

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