Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Aaron Robertson

Aaron Shapiro

Aaron T Beck

Aaron Vallance

Aaron Young was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and read Politics and Communications at The University of Liverpool. He is a BAFTA-nominated director, producer and executive producer with over 20 years of experience across projects for the BBC, PBS, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, UK Film Council and Arts Council England. A long-time collaborator of acclaimed historian, James Holland, he is the producer and director of the BAFTA-shortlisted BBC titles ‘Battle of Britain: The Real Story’ and, ‘Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams’, as well as ‘The Battle for Malta’, ‘Normandy ’44: The Battle Beyond D-Day’, the RTS-nominated ‘Imphal &amp; Kohima: Britain’s Greatest Battle.’, and the 3-part series, 'Normandy '44: D-Day and the Battle for France. His most recent credits include 'Hidden Histories of WWII', 'Lost Temples of Cambodia', the RTS-winning ‘Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany’, and ‘Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter’. Aaron was named in the inaugural list of BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch.’ He is the co-owner of award-winning film and television production company, Bright Button Productions, and lives with his wife and children in Poundbury, Dorset.

Aaron Young

Aatish Taseer

Abbe Prevost

Abbey Bryant is an NYC-based award-winning illustrator. With her BFA in Children's Book Illustration, her notable illustrated books include Nautilus award winner Hazel Mist, Hypnotist as well as an Enchanted Fairy House Kit with Scholastic's Klutz! 
 
As a queer illustrator, LGBTQ+ themes and stories hold a spot near to her heart. Most days she can be found around the city drawing New Yorkers or sketching trees at the park.

Abbey Bryant

Abbey Clancy is a model, television presenter and the host of chart-topping podcast The Therapy Crouch. She was the runner-up of Britain's Next Top Model in 2006, winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and went on to present Britain's Next Top Model. Later this year she will host Celebrity Homes on ITV.

Abbey Clancy

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years. She was inspired to write her first novel, The Silent Treatment, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. 
 
Abbie lives in Brighton with her boyfriend.

Abbie Greaves

Abbie Ross is a British author and psychotherapist. Her first book, Hippy Dinners, a funny and poignant memoir of her bohemian childhood in 1970s North Wales, has been optioned by Baby Cow, who are developing it into an 8-part television series. 
Before turning to writing, Abbie had a successful career as a producer at Aardman Animations, the acclaimed studios behind Wallace &amp; Gromit and the film Chicken Run. 
Today, she divides her time between her thriving psychotherapy practice in Bristol, and her writing, and finds that the two careers complement each other perfectly.

Abbie Ross

Abbie Spallen

Abbie Taylor lives in Dublin. She works as a doctor and has two daughters.

Abbie Taylor

Abby L Yates co-founded the Ghostbusters with Erin Gilbert. Ghosts from Our Past was her first book, now finally back in print.

Abby L Yates

Abby Lee

Abby Rawlinson is an integrative therapist with a private practice based in east London, UK. Her work mixes traditional psychotherapeutic theories with cutting-edge, evidence-based techniques into a style that feels relatable, down-to-earth, and compassionate. Abby regularly contributes to articles, including but not limited to Stylist, Elle, BBC, Harpers Bazaar, Sheerluxe, Women's Health, and Psychologies. She can be found on Instagram @therapywithabby or online at therapywithabby.co.uk

Abby Rawlinson

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, FIFA World Cup champion, six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award and one of Time’s Most Influential People. She is a founder of Treat Media, an award-winning media company that makes art for humans who want to stay human. Abby is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wolfpack and the New York Times bestseller Forward. Named one of the ‘50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting,’ she is co-host of the chart-topping podcast We Can Do Hard Things, which has received over a half billion plays. Abby is an executive producer of the Sundance award-winning film Come See Me in the Good Light, part owner of the NWSL’s Angel City Football Club and sits on multiple boards. Her most recent book, We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions, created with Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle and Treat Media, is being hailed as ‘the guidebook for being alive.’

Abby Wambach

Abel &amp; Cole’s story starts in 1988 with Keith Abel flogging potatoes door-to-door. ‘Of course potatoes are organic,’ he thought, ‘they’re vegetables’. However, he quickly discovered how unnecessarily complicated our food system had become and, consequently, realised the huge benefits of going organic and never looked back. In fact, Abel &amp; Cole still get veg from the farm where Keith's first organic spuds came from. 
To this day, their priorities remain the same. Now, selling 100% organic produce, Abel &amp; Cole believe that organic farming (a holistic system that encourages biodiversity) is the very best way to go. It protects our countryside and the critters that inhabit it, insists on the very best animal welfare, supports your local community and, frankly, tastes heaps better. Abel &amp; Cole think so anyway.

Abel & Cole Limited

Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In 2011, he was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 global thinkers. Banerjee served on the U.N. Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Abhishek Mukherjee, 30, is a Delhi-based journalist. He holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Delhi University, a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Raipur. He also likes dogs.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Africa, Berkshire and London. She is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of RUMBLESTAR (first in The Unmapped Chronicles), SKY SONG &amp; THE DREAMSNATCHER TRILOGY, published by S&amp;S. When she's not writing, Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story.

Abi Elphinstone

Abi Falase is a Black British writer and director, reimagining fundamental societal concepts in inventive new worlds. Abi has written and directed a number of plays, including The Village and Rush with the Almedia Theatre, as well as Rift for Immediate Theatre and was shortlisted for the BBC Scriptworks ‘A Thousand Stories’ scriptwriting competition in 2021.

Abi Falase

Abi Titmuss

Abie Longstaff is the eldest of six children and grew up in Australia, Hong Kong and France. She knows all about squabbling, chaos and bossing younger sisters around. So she logically began her career as a barrister. She started writing when her children were born. Her favourite childhood books were Hating Alison Ashley, A Little Princess, Maura's Angel and The Black Stallion and she sneakily reads them again sometimes. Abie lives in Hove with her family.

Abie Longstaff

Abigail Ahern

Abigail Balfe is a queer, auDHD author-illustrator and Emmy award-winning creative based in Brighton. Before writing books full-time, Abigail led digital campaigns for pop stars such as One Direction and Little Mix, and for TV broadcasters including Channel 4 and Netflix. She also performed stand-up comedy and won several small trophies for her onstage humour, which featured life-size illustrations, ridiculous songs, and rambling stories about her family. In 2023, Abigail was named one of the Top 50 Influential Neurodivergent Women in the UK.

Abigail Balfe

Abigail Docherty

Abigail Foster is a Chartered Accountant and founder of Elent Finance, a financial education company designed to demystify the world of finance and empower you to achieve financial wellbeing. 
 
Abigail has worked with leading financial institutions across the UK, including HMRC, the Bank of England and Downing Street, and global companies such as Google and Goldman Sachs. She hosts a weekly money segment on LBC radio and has also appeared as a finance expert on ITV, Channel 5 and Sky News.

Abigail Foster

Abigail Owen is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of 30+ books that range from upper YA (18+) epic romantasy to new adult modern mythic romantasy to super spicy adult paranormal romance. She loves magical worlds with plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include: wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, AuDHD, spreadsheet lover, Jeopardy! fanatic, organizational guru, true classic movie buff, linguaphile, wishful world traveler, and chocoholic. Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own swoon-worthy hero, their (mostly) angelic teenagers, and an adorable fur baby.

Abigail Owen

Abigail Ulman was born and raised in Melbourne. She has a BA in Creative Arts from the University of Melbourne/VCA and was a recent Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University. This is her first book.

Abigail Ulman

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Spencer FC

How one man went from gaming and making videos at home to becoming a football club owner 
 
'The bizarre new world of football' Guardian 
 
I lifted the trophy triumphantly over my head, just as I’d seen so many FA Cup, World Cup and Champions League winners do on TV. It was quite simply the best moment of my life. Hashtag United had won. 
 
So, how on earth did this happen? How did a kid who at one point couldn’t even get in his school team end up playing at Wembley Stadium in front of 20,000 people? How did someone who spent his life playing computer games get to play football in the same side as World Cup- and Champions League-winning players? 
 
I'm hardly sure myself. But here's my attempt to tell the story.

Gamechanger

From playing FIFA to owning my own club

Rob Smyth

1980s Rio de Janeiro. 
 
There’s only one king in this city and he’s got the mullet, swagger and fake ID to prove it. 
 
Introducing Carlos Henrique Raposo, known to all as KAISER. 
 
This guy’s got more front than Copacabana beach. He’s the most loveable of rogues with the most common of dreams: to become a professional footballer. And he isn’t about to let trivial details like talent and achievement stand in his way. . . not when he has so many other ways to get what he wants. 
 
In one of the most remarkable football stories ever told, Kaiser graduates from abandoned slumdog to star striker, dressing-room fixer, superstar party host and inexhaustible lover. 
 
And all without kicking a ball. 
 
He’s not just the king… he’s the Kaiser.

Kaiser

The Greatest Footballer Never To Play Football

David Wardale

Every Saturday afternoon, 5.8 million people around the world settle down to see how their team will get on. 
 
But this isn’t the team they support. It’s THEIR team. 
 
They have spent hour after hour assessing injuries, swapping subs and tweaking formations. Because when the day is done and the scores are in, they want to be able to look in the mirror and say, ‘THAT TRIPLE CAPTAIN CALL WAS AN ACT OF GENIUS!’ 
 
Welcome to the obsessive world of Fantasy Football, where managers will do anything to succeed. David Wardale – writer for the UK's number one Fantasy Football site, Fantasy Football Scout – meets previous winners to discover how they beat millions to the crown. He reveals the leagues where failure involves outright humiliation and discovers just how low some managers will go to claim a psychological advantage. 
 
Along the way, he finds Saudi sheikhs, stats professors, most of Norway and a member of one of the biggest pop bands of all time, all of them united by their unflinching desire for Fantasy Football greatness.

Wasting Your Wildcard

The Method and Madness of Fantasy Football

Pete Davies

'This could well be the best book ever written about football' Time Out 
 
The memoir behind the documentary One Night in Turin, the inside story of a World Cup that changed our footballing nation forever. 
 
It was the World Cup semi-finals. On 4th July, 1990, in a stadium in Turin, Gazza cried, England lost and football changed forever. 
 
This is the inside story of Italia '90 - we meet the players, the hooligans, the agents, the journalists, the fans. Writer Pete Davies was given nine months full access to the England squad and their manager Bobby Robson. One Night in Turin is his thrilling insider account of the summer when football became the greatest show on earth.

One Night in Turin

The Inside Story of a World Cup that Changed our Footballing Nation Forever

David Conn

'A superb go-to guide for anyone seeking context on why Qatar won the 2022 World Cup bid' Daily Express 
 
The Fall of the House of Fifa is the definitive story of Fifa's rise and the most spectacular fall sport has ever seen. 
 
For forty years Joao Havelange and then Sepp Blatter presided over a Fifa now plagued with scandal - dawn raids, FBI investigations, allegations of money laundering, industrial-scale bribery, racketeering, tax evasion, vote-buying and theft. Now David Conn, football's most respected investigative journalist, chronicles the extraordinary history and staggering scale of corruption. He paints revealing portraits of the men at the centre of Fifa - the power brokers, the indicted, the legends like Franz Beckenbauer and Michel Platini - and puts the allegations to Blatter himself in an extended interview.

The Fall of the House of Fifa

How the world of football became corrupt

Bill Buford

___________________________ 
THE BESTSELLING ACCOUNT OF FOOTBALL VIOLENCE 
 
Welcome to the world of football thuggery. 
 
They have names like Bonehead, Paraffin Pete and Steamin’ Sammy. They like lager, football, the Queen, and themselves. They love England. They dislike the rest of the known universe. 
 
The beautiful game remains ugly. 
 
From following Manchster's Red Army to drinking with skinheads, acclaimed writer Bill Buford enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of Hunter S. Thompson. 
 
Among the Thugs is a terrifying, malevolently funny, supremely chilling book about the experience, and the eerie allure, of crowd violence and football culture.

Among The Thugs

Patrick Fort

Jean Philippe

Get inside the mind of football's most enigmatic icon 
 
‘Zidane is the master’ Pele 
 
One of modern football’s most brilliant players - and one of its most iconic and mysterious figures - Zinedine Zidane’s football career is the stuff of legend. A World Cup-winner with France, he became the world's most expensive player in 2001 when he moved from Juventus to Real Madrid for £46million, where his exceptional talent earned him a reputation as one of the greatest players of all-time. His playing career concluded explosively when he retired after being sent off for head-butting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final. 
 
But his football career was far from over. After a spell coaching in Spain, he was appointed manager of Real Madrid in 2015 and immediately demonstrated that his skill as a manager matched his talent on the pitch, leading the team to successive Champions League victories and establishing him as one of the new managerial greats. 
 
Rarely speaking to the press, Zidane is known as a man who ‘speaks only with the ball’. In this definitive biography, Patrick Fort and Jean Philippe take us behind the scenes of his exceptional career, revealing the man behind the legend.

Zidane

Eduardo Galeano

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'Football is a pleasure that hurts' 
 
This unashamedly emotional history of football is a homage to the romance and drama, spectacle and passion of a 'great pagan mass'. Through stories of superstition, heartbreak, tragedy, luck, heroes and villains, those who lived for football and those who died for it, Eduardo Galeano celebrates the glory of a game that - however much the rich and powerful try to control it - still retains its magic. 
 
'The Uruguayan whose writing got right to the heart of football ... readers were never in doubt of the warmth of the blood running through his veins' Guardian 
 
'Galeano can run rings round our glamorous football intelligentsia' When Saturday Comes 
 
'Stands out like Pele on a field of second-stringers' New Yorker

Football in Sun and Shadow

Patrick Barclay

The Man Who Made A Football Club 
 
Sir Matt Busby, who took Manchester United to unprecedented glory before seeing the club through profound tragedy, created the global entity that spreads from Old Trafford today. 
 
A player with Manchester City and Liverpool before the Second World War, Busby remained at the forefront of football through four decades and made an extraordinary contribution to the game in terms of both style and substance. In this definitive biography, Patrick Barclay looks back at Busby’s phenomenal life and career, including the rise of the Busby Babes in the 1950s, the Munich disaster that claimed 23 lives and the Wembley victory ten years on that made United the first English team to win the European Cup. Denis Law, Pat Crerand and such other members of that great side as Alex Stepney, David Sadler and John Aston are among the host of voices testifying to the qualities that set Sir Matt apart. 
 
This is the story of one of the greatest figures in football history, and of the making of a legacy that will last for ever.

Sir Matt Busby

The Man Who Made a Football Club

The Definitive Biography

The Secret Footballer

Since his first book was published in 2012, The Secret Footballer has been able to take the reader behind the scenes of footballers' lives like no other player has been able, or will ever be able, to do. Anonymity has been a potent weapon in revealing the real world of football stars, and five years on, he has now penned the work that all his fellow professionals have been urging him to do from the start, The Secret Footballer: What Goes on Tour. And it isn't going to stay on tour any more... 
 
From Marbella and Ibiza to Dubai and Las Vegas, The Secret Footballer lays bare the worst, most embarrassing and most hilarious excesses of these fit and mostly fickle young men whose million-pound salaries, to use his own words, 'open up a host of recreational opportunities'. Fuelled by rampaging desires for sex, drugs, booze and rock'n'roll, these footballers think up ever more extreme ways of splashing the cash, and needless to say, it doesn't always end well...

The Secret Footballer: What Goes on Tour

Copa90

In the summer of 2018, the entire planet will be glued to its screens as Russia hosts the greatest show on Earth: the FIFA World Cup. 
 
As the home of global football fan culture, Copa90 will be there every step of the way to bring the true story of Russia 2018 to its huge social media following. 
 
Football fans of all ages can be one step ahead of the game with this comprehensive guide to the planet's biggest tournament. This isn't just a book about the big teams and the star names - it's the real football fan's World Cup book. Penned by Copa90's own in-house team of football fanatics, it has something for everyone including: 
 
 * The full run-down on all 32 competing nations, with a focus on each side's biggest legend and most promising young star. 
 * A guide to the host nation's stadiums and cities, with info gathered from Copa90's own travels to Russia. 
 * The most memorable moments in World Cup history. 
 * The best and worst teams, players, kits and goal celebrations. 
 * Find out which of your favourite stars make the grade in Copa90's Ultimate World Cup XI. 
 * Much, much more!

COPA90: Our World Cup

A Fans' Guide to 2018

Ross Raisin

Tom has always known exactly the person he is going to be. A successful footballer. A man others look up to. Now, though, the bright future he imagined for himself is threatened. 
 
The Premier League academy of his boyhood has let him go. At nineteen, Tom finds himself playing for a tiny club in a town he has never heard of. But as he navigates his isolation and his desperate need for recognition, a sudden and thrilling encounter offers him the promise of an escape, and Tom is forced to question whether he can reconcile his supressed desires with his dreams of success. 
 
Leah, the captain’s wife, has almost forgotten the dreams she once held, for her career, her marriage. Moving again, as her husband is transferred from club to club, she is lost, disillusioned with where life has taken her. 
 
A Natural delves into the heart of a professional football club: the pressure, the loneliness, the threat of scandal, the fragility of the body and the struggle, on and off the pitch, with conforming to the person that everybody else expects you to be.

A Natural

What makes the ultimate Sunday League footballer? YouTube star ChrisMD has turned amateur Sunday afternoon kick-arounds into a social media event - and now, for the first time, he's sharing all of his secrets. Join Chris as he reveals the characters, training tricks and top-level dietary regime (greasy sausage roll from the village café) that has got him where he is today. 
 
Chris's debut book also includes behind-the-scenes photos from his life as a YouTuber, plus his proudest moments, biggest embarrassments and favourite memories from his years of making videos with everyone from the Sidemen to his own family. 
 
Includes links to exclusive, never-before-seen ChrisMD videos.

Thrills, Skills and Molehills

The Beautiful Game?

Michael Calvin

Shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards 2018 
 
“What’s your dream, son?” 
 
A six year-old boy, head bowed, mumbles the eternal answer: “Be a footballer….” Steadman Scott, football’s most unlikely talent scout, smiles indulgently, and takes him in from the street. He knows the odds. Only 180 of the 1.5 million boys who play organised youth football in England will become a Premier League pro. That’s a success rate of 0.012 per cent. 
 
How and why do the favoured few make it? What separates the good from the great? Who should they trust – the coach, the agent or their parents? 
 
Michael Calvin provides the answers on a journey from non-league grounds to hermetically sealed Premier League palaces, via gang-controlled sink estates and the England team’s inner sanctum. He interviews decision makers, behavioural specialists, football agents and leading coaches. He shares the hopes and fears of players and their parents. He exposes bullying and a black economy in which children are commodities, but remains true to the dream.

No Hunger In Paradise

The Players. The Journey. The Dream

Mark Perryman

The good, the bad, the beautiful game: a mix that few can explain and yet whenever football hooliganism breaks out, the government, the football authorities, the police and journalists are all too ready to offer quick-fix solutions - solutions that rarely consider the underlying causes of the violence. 
 
Is it about boys becoming men? Racism and the hatred of all things foreign? Or about a defence of territory and national pride? Hooligan Wars looks behind the easy answers by comparing England's fan culture to football supporters' experience in France, Germany and Holland. The role of fascist groups is investigated. The effect of media coverage of hooliganism is analysed. And the impact of all-seater stadiums reviewed. A separate chapter considers the fans' experiences at the recent World Cup in South Korea and Japan. 
 
Rivalry with 'the other lot' and winding up those we love to put one over on will always be a big part of what it means to be a football fan. Is the connection between this and violence something that can never be broken? What would football be like free of hooliganism? In trying to rid the game of its ugly underbelly, are we in danger of softening too many of those rough edges that makes it so special? 
 
This is a book that takes risks by asking awkward questions. Football violence is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's time to break the spell.

Hooligan Wars

Causes and Effects of Football Violence

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Fredrik Ekelund

Karl Ove Knausgaard and fellow writer Fredrik Ekelund kick around thoughts and ideas on football, life, art and politics. 
 
Karl Ove Knausgaard is sitting at home in Skåne with his wife, four small children and a dog. He is watching football on TV and falls asleep in front of the set. He likes 0-0 draws, cigarettes, coffee and Argentina. 
 
Fredrik Ekelund is away in Brazil, where he plays football on the beach and watches matches with friends. Fredrik loves games that end up 4-3 and teams that play beautiful football. He likes caipirinhas and Brazil. 
 
In Home and Away, two writers use football and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to reflect on life and death, art and politics, class and literature and the most important question: was this the best football championship ever?

Home and Away

Writing the Beautiful Game

David Squires

‘A fresh look at the beautiful game’ - NME 
 
Welcome back to the inimitable work of illustrator David Squires. 
 
Most football fans can only dream of pulling on the shirt of their favourite team and running out in front of thousands of adoring fans. Pitch invaders aside, few of us get to experience that adrenalin rush. Of those who do make it as a professional footballer, even fewer realise the giddy heights of success. 
 
In the Illustrated History of Football: Hall of Fame, cartoonist David Squires returns to celebrate those who straddle the game like giants; those talented, determined souls who were juggling tennis balls in the back streets before they could talk. 
 
There’s more than one way to attain football immortality though, and Squires also turns his comic eye to the mavericks, the pioneers, the forgotten legends and the anti-heroes. From Pele to Meazza, Maradona to Socrates, you will be taken on an unforgettable journey through the good, the bad and the Hagi.

The Illustrated History of Football

Hall of Fame

Jason Hazeley

Joel Morris

These delightful books are the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. 
 
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. The subject of the books will greatly appeal to grown-ups. 
 
The eight books in the series feature original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. The other books in the series are: 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Sheds 
 
- The Ladybird Book of The Hipster 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Hangover 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Dating 
 
- How it Works: The Husband 
 
- How it Works: The Wife

*A HILARIOUS, BRAND NEW BOOK IN THE PHENOMENAL LADYBIRDS FOR GROWN UPS SERIES FOR AUTUMN 2017* 
 
The Ladybird Book of Balls - The subject of sport gets the Ladybird treatment from bestselling authors Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris. 
 
This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. 
 
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text.

The Ladybird Book of Balls

The perfect gift for fans of the World Cup

Uli Hesse

‘MASTERFUL’ Raphael Honigstein 
 
The story of superclub Bayern Munich by the critically acclaimed author of Tor! 
 
Bayern Munich is a team of extremes. They are the most passionately supported club in Germany and the most hated. There is no doubt that they are the most successful. 
 
Winners of twenty-four domestic titles since the late 1960s, they have stood at the pinnacle of European football for almost their entire existence. 
 
 Through interviews with the key protagonists, Uli Hesse tells the story of this unique club. From early run-ins with the Nazis to being dubbed FC Hollywood for their egocentric stars in the 1990s up to the sensational undercover appointment of the best coach in the world, Pep Guardiola, Hesse opens the doors on Bavaria’s superpower and takes you inside Bayern Munich.

Bayern

Creating a Global Superclub

Be on the ball with this game-changing footy favourite 
 
Alright, mate, how’s it going? 
 
Believe it or not, I haven’t always been football mad. But then FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 came out. FIFA inevitably led to Football Manager. And that’s where I started getting properly hooked. 
 
Now I’m a football club owner who’s played to 20,000 people at Wembley Stadium and travelled the world with my team, Hashtag United. And the best bit of all? I’m not even that good. 
 
So, how on earth did this happen? How did someone who spent his life playing computer games and making YouTube videos pull it off? 
 
I’m hardly sure myself, but here’s my attempt to tell the story.

John-Paul O’Neill

In 2004, Manchester United could proclaim itself the richest football club in the world, and boasted global commercial appeal alongside more than a decade of success on the pitch. In early 2005, American businessman Malcolm Glazer targeted a leveraged takeover of the club, and it looked set to be plunged into record levels of debt. The fans were furious. If the deal went wrong, it would threaten United's very existence, whilst the Glazers would be able to walk away without it having cost them a cent. Protests in the stands fell on deaf ears – it became increasingly clear that marches and placards wouldn’t make any difference to the Glazer family. 
 
In May 2005 the takeover went ahead. In response, one group of supporters took a drastic step: rather than meekly fall into line and – through rocketing ticket prices – help fund the Glazers' aims of cashing in on Manchester United's history and traditions, they took the plunge and formed a new club that started life in the tenth tier of English football. The decision tore Manchester United's fan base apart, and caused ructions that continue to this day. 
 
This is the story of FC United of Manchester, the phenomenon born out of a supporter revolution. Established against all odds, its constitution enabled supporters to each own part of the club and have a direct say in how it was run. It also adopted a transparent manifesto and ensured it could never be sold on for profit. 
 
However, as generations that have gone before will testify, modern football is now as much a business as it is a sport. How long can a club set up in opposition to a culture of greed stay true to its principles? And in a noble attempt to do so, could it ultimately tear itself apart?

Red Rebels

The Glazers and the FC Revolution

Neal Heard

They think it’s all over…it is now, with this comprehensive guide to football shirts through the years. 
 
From the obscure to the ubiquitous, The Football Shirts Book is packed with over 150 original and super rare shirts from the greatest game on earth. Covering everything from the iconic to the unusual, even the most hard-core fans will find out something new about the kit of their favourite team. 
 
Including full-colour photography, as well as interviews with football shirt design teams, musicians, and fashion designers, this guide offers a full exploration of the brands, design, and sponsorship history behind the world’s best-loved football shirts. 
 
It is a must-have for those crazy about football shirts, as well as those whose interest is piqued by history, design, and pop-culture.

The Football Shirts Book

Duncan Alexander

In football, numbers are everywhere. From touches in the opposition box to expected goals, clear-cut chances to win-loss ratios. 
 
In the modern game, these numbers help provide the narrative, the drama, and the conversation. They are scrutinised in order to justify results and to predict future outcomes. They even dictate transfer policy and drive clubs to achieve the impossible. 
 
But when did the numbers become so important and what do they mean? 
 
In Outside the Box, Duncan Alexander looks back at twenty-five years of the Premier League and beyond, uncovering the hidden truths and accepted myths that surround the game. Using the archives of OptaJoe and never-before-seen data, we discover why Liverpool have gone 27 years without winning a league title and why Lionel Messi is the best player in the game’s history. Or is he? 
 
Insightful, wry, and hugely entertaining, Outside the Box is an enlightening and accessible account of football across the decades, analysing data from the some of the greatest seasons, players, teams and managers.

Outside the Box

A Statistical Journey through the History of Football

Gabriele Marcotti

Alberto Polverosi

Leicester City's Premier League victory was the 5,000-1 triumph that delighted the world. 
 
But how did Claudio Ranieri pull off one of the greatest achievements in sport? 
 
 This is the inside story of the rise and rise of the butcher’s son from Rome, whose hard work, passion for the game and ability to learn from his mistakes have earned him the respect of players, fans and owners worldwide. 
 
 Gabriele Marcotti and Alberto Polverosi have known Claudio Ranieri since his early days as a professional footballer. They have closely followed his successes and his failures as he navigated the often topsy-turvy world of football and developed as a player and manager. 
 
 Hail, Claudio! takes an in-depth look into what sets Ranieri apart as a manager, into precisely how the Premier League was won, and what went wrong following that golden season.

Hail, Claudio!

The Manager Behind the Miracle

The Man, the Manager, the Miracle

Ruud Gullit

How can one striker be better than three? Why do the best defenders never need to make a tackle? What's the secret of Tiki-taka? 
 
Welcome to Ruud Gullit's masterclass on how to 'read' a match. 
 
From his unrivalled perspective as player, manager and pundit, the Dutch football legend shows us everything to look for in a 90-minute match. From formations and tactical decisions to player qualities and pivotal moments, Ruud Gullit unveils the hidden patterns on the pitch - as if he's sitting right there on the sofa next to you. 
 
Packed with his acute insights, original observations and talking points sure to dazzle down the pub, How to Watch Football will quite simply change the way you see - and enjoy - the beautiful game.

How To Watch Football

Nige Tassell

In these days of oligarch owners, superstar managers and players on sky-high wages, the tide is turning towards the lower reaches of the pyramid as fans search for football with a soul. 
 
Plucky underdogs or perennial underachievers, your local non-league team offers hope, drama or at least a Saturday afternoon ritual that's been going for decades. Nige Tassell spends a season in the non-league world. He meets the raffle-ticket seller who wants her ashes scattered in the centre-circle. The envelope salesman who discovered a future England international. The ex-pros still playing with undiluted passion on Sunday mornings. He spends time at clubs looking for promotion to the Football League, clubs just aiming to get eleven players on a pitch every week, and everything in between. 
 
One thing unites them: they all inhabit the heartland of the beautiful game. 
 
'The Bottom Corner is a wonderful journey through life in the lower reaches of the football pyramid. A fascinating tale of a very different world of football from that of the overpaid stars of the television age' Barry Davies

The Bottom Corner

Hope, Glory and Non-League Football

A Season with the Dreamers of Non-League Football

Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts was, for once, almost lost for words as the news sank in. Perennial underachievers Bromley, in the vertigo-inducing fifth tier of English football? It was the greatest achievement in the club's 130-year history and, by extraordinary coincidence, Dave had decided to spend the next 12 months in the UK, after an absence of 35 years, deciding whether he and his wife Liz could live there. And what better way to explore modern day Blighty than by following a roadmap based on the fixtures in the Vanarama National League? It was like the ultimate package holiday; well, for Dave at least. 
 
Home and Away takes Dave - and occasionally Liz too - the length and breadth of the land on a journey of discovery, with Bromley games thrown in. So from the White Cliffs of Dover and the English Riviera (Torquay) through the timeless charm of the Cotswolds (Forest Green, Cheltenham) to towns steeped in history (Lincoln, Chester), faded seaside resorts (Southport, Barrow) and fallen giants of the game (Grimsby, Wrexham, Tranmere - OK, pushing it there), the season unfolds, and the ultimate 'home or away' decision approaches. 
 
Against the odds, the season also proves not to be full of the endless disappointments football fans are conditioned to expect. Unfancied Bromley are on a mission, they have a man called Moses up front, and the promised land of the Football League might not be beyond their capabilities...

Round Britain in Search of Non-League Football Nirvana

Bobby Charlton

Wembley, 1966. England wins the World Cup to roars of a euphoric home crowd. 
 
Sir Bobby Charlton, England&rsquo;s greatest ever player, was there on the pitch. In 1966, he looks back on the most glorious moment of his life and England's greatest sporting achievement. 
 
He takes us through the build-up to the tournament and to the final itself - what he saw, what he heard, what he felt. He tells us what it was like to be part of Sir Alf Ramsey&rsquo;s team, his memories of his teammates, the matches, the atmosphere; the emotion of being carried on the wave of a nation&rsquo;s euphoria and how it felt to go toe-to-toe with some of the foremost footballers to ever play the game. 
 
His life was forever defined by a single moment: one day when a man stood side-by-side with his best friends, united in a single aim in front of a watching nation. This is his story. 
 
&lsquo;It&rsquo;s gripping stuff&hellip; This is a mellow book, the product of many years&rsquo; contemplation, and emotional in a way that may surprise you&hellip;He has a wonderful story to tell&rsquo; Daily Mail

1966

My World Cup Story

Gary Neville

Phil Neville

Paul Scholes

Ryan Giggs

Nicky Butt

Robert Draper

As modern football legends, the Class of 92 need no introduction. Class of 92: Out of Their League, however, opens a dramatic new chapter in the story of former Manchester United greats Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, as they take on a new role in each of their lives: owners of semi-professional club Salford City FC. 
 
An enthralling, in-depth account of Salford's first two years under new ownership, Class of 92: Out of Their League combines first-hand accounts from Gary, Phil, Paul, Ryan and Nicky as they try to turn round the club's fortunes, along with a wider story of tremendous athletic and human drama. Featuring colourful characters like managers Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley, star players, club chairman Karen Baird, lifelong fans, and more, this is a story told with real authenticity and grit. Accompanying the second series of the hugely popular BBC series, Class of 92: Out of Their League is both a testament to the best of modern football and a brilliant reminder, in an era when fans are threatening walkouts over rising ticket prices, of what football is really all about.

Class of 92: Out of Our League

Henry Winter

'England invented football, codified it, became champions of the world in 1966 but humiliatingly then forgot how to play the greatest game of all. England took their eye off a ball they arrogantly thought they owned, allowing other nations to run off with it.' 
 
It was Fifty Years of Hurt from when Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup trophy at Wembley to arguably the nadir of the national game - defeat by Iceland at Euro 2016 and the most botched managerial appointment in FA history. In this groundbreaking book, a Sunday Times bestseller, Henry Winter addresses the state England are in as they celebrate, or rather not, the golden anniversary of their greatest moment. Part lament, part anatomy of an obsession, both personal and collective, it analyses the truth behind the endless excuses, apportions the blame for the crimes against English football, but is also a search for hope and solutions. 
 
As well as players and managers, Henry Winter talks to the fans, to agents, to officials, to the governing bodies, about every aspect, good and bad, of English football over the past five decades to provide answers to the question: 'where did it all go wrong?'. It is a passionate journey by a writer with vast personal insight into the national team, with unprecedented access to all areas of the game, but also by a fan who wants his England back. The Fifty Years of Hurt must end.

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