A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy and is known as @agatharoza on Wattpad.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children. Angelica is also the author of Hunt A Killer, a PERFECT SCORE novel, under the pen name A.M. Ellis, which she wrote as an IP for Scholastic in the US.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, specialising in terrorism and counter-insurgency. He is the author and editor of several books, including Defending the Realm: The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars Since 1945, and has lectured all over the world on aspects of national and international security. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Aaron Edwards

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

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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. 
 
Bobby Windsor – 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.

Bobby Windsor - The Iron Duke

The Life and Times of a Working-Class Rugby Hero

John Scally

Bursting with humour and full of amusing anecdotes, 100 Irish Rugby Greats is a unique celebration of the most significant stars of the sport from the 1930s to the present day. A veritable who’s who of Irish rugby, it takes in all of the true greats, including Jack Kyle, Tony O’Reilly, Mike Gibson, Willie John McBride, Moss Keane, Keith Wood, Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell. 
 
Many of the in-depth and revealing profiles are based on interviews with the legends themselves, as well as with those who have lined up against them. The result offers remarkable insights into the myriad controversies, epic matches, thrilling contests and pivotal events on and off the field in which each player has been involved. 
 
Written with an insider’s knowledge, 100 Irish Rugby Greats will prove to be a thrilling read for all fans of the sport.

100 Irish Rugby Greats

Donncha O'Callaghan

Donncha O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's leading international rugby players, and a stalwart of the Munster side. He was a key figure in the Irish team which won the IRB 6 Nations Grand Slam in 2009, and has won two Heineken Cup medals and two Magners League titles with Munster. 
 
But that success did not come easy. For such a well known player with a larger-than-life reputation, his long battle to make a breakthrough at the highest level is largely unknown. In this honest and revealing autobiography, Donncha talks in detail about the personal setbacks and disappointments at Munster and the unconventional ways he dealt with the frustration of not making the team for four of five years in his early 20s. 
 
He had a parallel experience with Ireland where it took him nearly six years to get from fringe squad member to established first choice player. Here he talks candidly about how he brought discipline to his game, and about his relationships with the coaches who had overlooked him and the second row rivals who had kept him on the bench. 
 
Donncha talks also with great warmth about a hectic childhood that was shaped by the death of his father when he was only six years old. One of the heroes of his story is his mother Marie who showed incredible strength and resourcefulness to rear a family of five on her own. 
 
Often deservedly regarded as 'the joker in the pack', what is often less well known is the serious attitude and intensely professional approach Donncha brings to his rugby. Joking Apart gives the full picture, showing sides of the man that will be unfamiliar to followers of Irish rugby and will surprise the reader.

Joking Apart

My Autobiography

Huw Richards

'The Bounce of the Century' they called it. A ball kicked across Cardiff Arms Park in the dying minutes of a match between two of international rugby's fiercest rivals. The world's two greatest wingers waited as it bounced towards them, knowing that whoever caught the ball would score and win the match for his country. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks tells what happened when Wales played New Zealand in 1953. The story is written from contemporary accounts and the memories of the men who played that day, including Bob Stuart and Bleddyn Williams, for many of whom the match was the highlight of a career. 
 
The book retells the stories of the two teams and the men who played for them, and charts the events of their lives: how they got to that meeting point in Cardiff in December 1953 and what has happened to them in the half-century since. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks examines the remarkable relationship between two countries on opposite sides of the world, brought together by a mutual passion for rugby with few parallels elsewhere. It shows how their rivalry has developed over a century - from perhaps the greatest of all rugby matches in 1905 to the single-point thriller of 2004 - and looks to its future in the aftermath of the 2005 Welsh Grand Slam and Lions tour of New Zealand.

Dragons and All Blacks

Wales v. New Zealand - 1953 and a Century of Rivalry

Paul Rees

In the glory years of the 1970s, Wales won three grand slams in eight seasons. But rarely since then had the men in red started a Six Nations campaign armed with expectation rather than hope. 2012 was different. 
 
 The previous year they had come within a kick of reaching the World Cup final, losing by a point to France despite playing for the last hour with 14 men after their captain, Sam Warburton, had been sent off for a dangerous tackle. 
 
 The question when they returned home was how they would cope with the heartache. The answer came in their first match in the 2012 Six Nations Championship. In Dublin against Ireland, the team they had knocked out in the World Cup quarter-final, revenge was on the menu. Wales went there without five of their leading forwards and lost Warburton to injury at half-time. They were trailing by six points with five minutes to go and had a player in the sin-bin. The old Wales would have folded but, as in Life on Mars, it was back to the spirit of the 1970s. 
 
This Wales team came back fighting to win not only the game but to sweep the board in the whole tournament, bringing home a Welsh grand slam for the third time in eight years and establishing a strong and exciting team for the future.

The Welsh Grand Slam 2012

How Wales Won the Six Nations Championship

Based on exclusive interviews with 40 celebrated players, past and present, Legends of Irish Rugby is a veritable who's who of the sport. 
 
Immortals such as Jack Kyle, Willie John McBride, Tony Ward, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and Paul O'Connell bare their souls to reveal themselves as men of vision, passion and dedication - men who, through their glories, disappointments and dramatic deeds, have inspired others to realise their dreams. 
 
In this engrossing and entertaining account of the bittersweet history of Irish rugby, these powerful personalities offer startling insights into some of the sport's most controversial moments - from the assault on Ronan O'Gara during the 2001 Lions tour to Gary Ella's tenure as Leinster coach. They also express their opinions on the most important issues facing the game today - from Brian O'Driscoll's hair to the role of the coach and the future of the sport itself. Their take on the times is often as comical as it is insightful. 
 
Compelling, informative and humorous, Legends of Irish Rugby is by far the most revealing volume yet on one of the country's favourite sports.

Legends of Irish Rugby

Forty Golden Greats

Rugby is not a game for those who think that centres are what you find in a box of Black Magic or who confuse Jonah Lomu with Joanna Lumley. At the same time, it is not a game for the bright: what kind of tortured mind would invent an oval ball? Of course, it helps if you know the rules and don't have any fear. In this respect you are in the same boat as most referees, particularly if you have a problem with your eyesight. 
 
Odd-Shaped Balls captures the humour, the agony and the ecstasy of one of the world's most popular sports. It snoops inside sweaty, smelly dressing-rooms, reveals the passions of coaches and fans - without whom rugby would cease to exist - and delves deep into the sport's archives to recall its heroes, villains and victims, all of whom are part of the daily currency. 
 
The book is no less than a who's who of the game, with both old and young getting the opportunity to have their say. Lining out is a cast of mischief-makers, miscreants and mad-hatters: from Max Boyce to Keith Wood; from Sean Fitzpatrick to Austin Healy; from Bill Beaumont and his streaker to Gavin Hastings; from Gareth Edwards to David Campese; and from the man in the scrum to the man at the bar. All exponents of surrealism, comic genius and savage wit, they offer a quirky insight into the sporting psyche as well as providing some riotous good laughs. 
 
With hundreds of funny stories, Odd-Shaped Balls is a light-hearted romp through decades of rugby tomfoolery that is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of all sports fans.

Odd-Shaped Balls

Mischief-Makers, Miscreants and Mad-Hatters Of Rugby

David Walmsley

Look for a Lions legend and the chances are you will find an Irishman. Throughout the touring team's history, the heroes of Irish rugby have been at the heart of the Lions' finest hours - on and off the pitch. 
 
 Look at the Lions record books and you will find Irishmen at the top of almost every list, from Willie John McBride and Tony O'Reilly to Ronnie Dawson. No nation has provided more leaders of the Lions. 
 
 In Lions of Ireland, these greats tell their stories of life on some of the longest, hardest roads in sport. Those featured include world-class players and characters who have contributed to Lions folklore, such as Karl Mullen, Jack Kyle, Fergus Slattery, Tom Kiernan, Mike Gibson and Syd Millar - and the account is brought up to date with contributions from the likes of Keith Wood. 
 
 This book includes a complete reference section featuring every Irish player to have represented the Lions in Tests since the first united tour of 1910. It recalls the powerful personalities and relives the most dramatic deeds in the Lions' long history - from the 1971 groundbreaking triumph against the All Blacks and success against the odds in South Africa in 1997 to the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

Lions of Ireland

A Celebration of Irish Rugby Legends

Robert Howley

Graham Clutton

Rob Howley was a late developer in terms of playing international rugby. But the Cardif, Wales and British Lions scrum half has more than made up for lost time. In Number Nine Dream, Howley looks back at his career, including his injury heartache, his late development, the pain of seeing a friend temporarily paralysed and the various scrapes with officialdom he has been involved in throughout his career. He talks in detail about the teething problems of professionalism and how he, one of Welsh rugby's all-time great players, has on more than one occasion been issued with an ultimatum by the West Wales Under 11s, Rob Howley was desperate to realise his boyhood ambition - to play senior reugby for his country. Injuries and subsequent operations set back his progress and when he finally returned to action, courtesy of a local valley faith healer, he found himself involved in one of the most controversial transfers in Welsh rugby history. Now a seaconed international and British Lion, Howley tells a story of pride, passion and extreme personal pain. Number Nine Dream is a compelling recollection of events on and off the pitch and highlights exactly what goes on in rugby's corridors of power and behind the changing-room doors.

Number Nine Dream

An Autobiography Of Rob Howley

Dave Hadfield

Along the way he met the people whose enthusiasm for the game has made it so durable - current and former internationals as well as others involved at all levels - as well as a few miserable old gits for balance. In this intimate account, Hadfield observes the way rugby league fits into the history and sociology of towns like Wigan and Castleford, with which it is synonymous. His record of the journey is in the great tradition of writers from Wordsworth to Laurie Lee, who found in long walks the perfect medium to explore and reflect upon their surroundings. Up and Over is the definitive book about the game and the local passions it engenders, as Hadfield seeks out the poignant and the humorous on a personal journey of discovery. For those who follow rugby league, it will give a unique perspective on the parts of the world they know intimately; for others it will be an introduction to a different world, seen via one of the elements that gives it its identity.

Up and Over

A Trek Through Rugby League Land

Hunter Davies

Hunter Davies's first major interview was with John Masefield for The Sunday Times in 1963. In the years since, he has interviewed many of the most famous people that the late twentieth century has to offer, from James Baldwin and Orson Welles to Jack Nicholson and Salman Rushdie. in an eclectic and highly readable selection, we learn that Noel Coward enjoyed watching operations and considered himself 'about as decadent as a suet pudding', David Hockney dyed his hair because 'blonds have more fun', and Anthony Burgess had yet to touch the body of an Englishwoman. Christy Brown concedes 'I'm just a run-of-the-mill genius', while Alan Sugar admits 'I'm a miserable sod'. The book opens with a specially written introduction in which Hunter Davies explores the art of the Celebrity Interview, and turns the tables to interview fellow practitioners, such as Lynn Barber and Angela Lambert.

Hunting People

Thirty Years of Interviews with the Famous

Jeff Connor

From the heights of the Grand Slams to a near whitewash in the 2000 Six Nations championship, one factor has remained constant in Scottish rugby - its huge resource of characters. 
 
Early in the year 2000, Jeff Connor set out on a mission to track down some of Scotland's best-known players, the true giants of the game, and discover whether there is life after international rugby. The result was 40 exclusive interviews and a book that is enlightening, hilarious and moving in equal measure. 
 
 There are rare and extended interviews with Ken Scotland, Jim Telfer, Ian McLauchlan, Sandy Carmichael and Andy Irvine. There is the Hawick humour of Jim Renwick, the history of Finlay Calder's greatest wind-ups and the emotive story of Gordon Brown's battle with his most vicious opponent of them all, cancer. Bruce Hay's confrontation with the Duke of Edinburgh, Iain Paxton's disgust at the attitude of some English players on a British Lions tour and David Leslie's fearsome pre-match preparations are all vividly described, along with frankly expressed views from active modern-day players like Gregor Townsend. 
 
All rugby fans will find something to treasure in Giants of Scottish Rugby.

Giants Of Scottish Rugby

Robert Jones

Rugby has held a central role in Welsh life over the past century. In the words of historian Gareth Williams, the game has been 'a pre-eminent expressionof Welsh consciousness, a signifier of Welsh nationhood'. Less than 25 years ago touring teams from the southern hemisphere knew that their hardest games would be in Wales; the Welsh national team was consistently the strongest in Britain. Thats all changed. Wales is now one of the game's also-rans. With only one Home Championship in the past 20 years and little success in the World Cup, Welsh rugby - despite some consolidation under Graham Henry - is badly in need of fresh thinking and ideas. Who better to provide them than the man who was widely regarded as one of the best scrum halves of his era, yet whose playing career coincided with that period of Welsh decline? In this thought-provoking and frequently controversial book, Welsh rugby icon Robert Jones provides a sharply realistic assassment of the Welsh game from the roots to the national stadium, drawing heavily on lessons learned and observations made during his own illustrious career. Raising the Dragon is a persona manifesto for change from a player whose commitment to Wales never wavered.

Raising The Dragon

A Clarion Call To Welsh Rugby

Andy Ripley

Winner of the National Sporting Club's prestigious British Rugby Book of the Year Award for 2008, Ripley's World transforms and redefines the genre of the sports autobiography. In a moving and intimate memoir, Andy Ripley, England rugby icon and victorious British Lion, television Superstar and world rowing champion, reflects on a life of sporting achievement and confronts his most powerful and dangerous challenge yet - his diagnosis with prostate cancer. Told with typical candour and courage, it is an absorbing and inspirational story.

Ripley's World

The Enthralling Story of the British Lion's Most Crucial Battle

Shane Williams

Delme Parfitt

Shane Williams has spent almost a decade thrilling the rugby world with his evasive running skills and a box of tricks that has left the best defences grasping thin air, disproving the notion that size matters in modern professional rugby. He's been called the little wizard, the artful dodger and a whole host of other superlatives, and wherever Williams has played, the crowd have been on the edge of their seats. 
 
As his teenage years came to an end, Williams looked set for a life of relative obscurity playing scrum-half for his local side, Amman United, and scratching around in a variety of day jobs. All that changed, however, when he was plucked from nowhere by then Neath coach Lyn Jones, and his rise to become Wales's most dangerous strike runner was meteoric. Following his international debut aged 21, Williams lit up Wales's 2003 World Cup campaign and went on to become an integral part of the Grand Slam-winning side of 2005, a year in which he also toured with the British Lions to New Zealand. In 2008, when Wales took the Grand Slam once more, he made a sensational contribution to the side's glorious victory. 
 
After leading the great Bryan Habana a merry dance on the way to two mesmerising tries on Wales' tour to South Africa just two months later, Williams became the first Welshman crowned IRB World Player of the Year that autumn. He then completed the 2008-09 season with a second Lions tour, touching down twice in the 28-9 third Test victory against the Springboks. 
 
In Shane, Williams reveals the inside story of his incredible rugby career so far, the personal trials that have come with success and how he has managed to defy the odds to become a living Welsh rugby legend.

Shane

My Story

Stephen Jones

Simon Roberts

Since making his national debut in 1998, Stephen Jones has emerged from the shadows of the true greats of Welsh rugby, such as Barry John, Phil Bennett, Jonathan Davies and Neil Jenkins, to make the fly-half position his own. In this revealing autobiography, he provides a rare insight into the demands and pressures of wearing the almost mythical number 10 jersey that has such a pre-eminent status in the Welsh psyche. 
 
As well as playing an integral role in Wales's two Grand Slam victories, Jones has appeared in three Rugby World Cups and was part of the 2005 British and Irish Lions squad. He has witnessed at first hand how the Welsh rugby establishment has struggled with the transition to professionalism, and in this candid memoir he recounts the many highs he has experienced, as well as the challenges he has faced, throughout his career so far. 
 
Jones gives an intriguing account of how he became one of the few Welsh players to play in France, recalling the brutality of the game there and how he became a cult figure amongst fans of Clermont Auvergne, where he was twice voted fly-half of the season. 
 
In Stephen Jones - A Thinking Man's Game: My Story, the Welsh rugby star reveals how his steely resolve, utter determination and sheer passion for rugby have allowed him to bounce back from numerous setbacks to become one of the most popular and respected figures in the game today.

A Thinking Man's Game: My Story

Wales were written off as no-hopers at the start of the 2008 Six Nations. They had failed to reach the World Cup quarter-finals the previous October and had reacted by appointing their 13th coach in 19 years, New Zealander Warren Gatland. 
 
On the opening weekend, success appeared unlikely when they trailed World Cup finalists England at Twickenham by ten points at half-time. Their second-half comeback, to earn their first victory at the ground for 20 years, set them on their way, and there was no looking back. In a blistering campaign, they set a new Six Nations record by conceding just two tries in their five matches. 
 
The Resurrection Men looks back over the glorious 2008 tournament but also examines the reasons why the foundations laid by Gatland look more secure than those established by Mike Ruddock before his controversial departure from the role less than a year after the side's last Grand Slam triumph in 2005. 
 
Wales imploded after Ruddock left, winning only one match in each of the 2006 and 2007 campaigns. His successor Gareth Jenkins asked to be judged on the team's performance in the World Cup. And he was, sacked hours after the defeat to Fiji which meant that, for the third time in five tournaments, Wales failed to make the knock-out stage. 
 
Little more than a week later, Welsh Rugby Union officials boarded a plane to New Zealand to meet Gatland and other candidates for head coach. Just two minutes into the meeting, they were ready to offer him the job. He promised them that if Wales won at Twickenham on the opening weekend, the slam would be on. They did and it was.

The Resurrection Men

Wales' Grand Slam 2008

Alun Carter

Nicholas Bishop

Alun Carter experienced the highs and lows of the Wales national rugby squad throughout his 12 years working for the WRU. During this time, he saw a number of high-profile coaches come and go, and in Seeing Red he delivers a brutally honest account of what it was like to work with each of them. From the inspirational successes of the Graham Henry and Mike Ruddock eras to the disappointments and failures of the Steve Hansen and Gareth Jenkins regimes, the reader is given an insider's version of what really went on. 
 
Carter does not shy away from controversy, and he pulls no punches in his assessment of the rift between Graham Henry and Sir Clive Woodward, the personal and political situation that led to Mike Ruddock losing his job, and the difficulty of handling the group dynamics within the national squad. The former analyst also provides an informed appraisal of the remarkable 2005 and 2008 Grand Slam victories. 
 
Winner of best rugby book at the 2009 British Sports Book Awards, Seeing Red provides a warts-and-all account of more than a decade of Welsh rugby and is packed with revelations, exclusive contributions and untold stories that will intrigue and delight all fans of the sport.

Seeing Red

Twelve Tumultuous Years in Welsh Rugby

Tom English

Shortlised for the 2022 SBA Best Sports Book of the 21st Century prize 
 
The gripping inside story of when an England-Scotland rugby match become more than a game 
 
Murrayfield, the Calcutta Cup, March 1990. England vs. Scotland - winner-takes-all for the Five Nations Grand Slam, the biggest prize in northern hemisphere rugby. 
 
Will Carling's England are the very embodiment of Margaret Thatcher's Britain - snarling, brutish and all-conquering. Scotland are the underdogs - second-class citizens from a land that's become the testing ground for the most unpopular tax in living memory: Thatcher's Poll Tax. In Edinburgh, nationalism is rising high - what happens in the stadium will resound far beyond the pitch. 
 
Told with unprecedented access to key players, coaches and supporters on both sides (Will Carling, Ian McGeechan, Brian Moore and the rest), Tom English has produced a gripping account of a titanic struggle that thrusts the reader right into the heart of the action. Game on. 
 
'A priceless read' Guardian 
'Absolutely outstanding' The Times 
'An epic tale' Daily Telegraph 
'Gripping' Scottish Review of Books

The Grudge

Two Nations, One Match, No Holds Barred

Scotland vs. England, 1990

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

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

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

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

Eddie O'Sullivan

Hear the story of the rise of one of Irish rugby's great outsiders and, ultimately, his crushing fall. 
 
As the longest-serving national coach in Irish rugby history, Eddie O'Sullivan produced a team that rose to third in the world rankings and laid down the standards for the team to fulfil its Grand Slam potential. Added to the three Triple Crowns he won in his six-year reign and the Corkman ought to enjoy legendary status in his homeland. 
 
Yet, few figures in Irish sport divide opinion quite like O'Sullivan. Ireland's abject performance at the '07 World Cup in France prompted extraordinary levels of criticism and precipitated O'Sullivan's fall. 
 
Here O'Sullivan talks candidly of the spectacular unravelling of confidence within probably the best Irish team in history; of the bizarre rumour mill that followed the Irish team through that World Cup; and takes us behind the scenes of a story that tossed an entire nation into mourning. 
 
From his relationships with his successor as Irish coach, Declan Kidney, and indeed his predecessor, Warren Gatland, to his early struggle for recognition in the Irish game when the absence of a traditional rugby background militated against him, O'Sullivan pulls no punches in this revelatory story about far more than rugby.

Eddie O'Sullivan: Never Die Wondering

The Autobiography

Josh Lewsey

Josh Lewsey is a household name in English rugby. He has been a Rugby World Cup winner, part of the prestigious British Lions squad and a crucial member of the Wasps team, one of the most successful UK premiership rugby sides of the last 10 years. Not content with just being a rugby player, his life off the pitch has been equally impressive. He is a graduate in both Law and Physiology, a former Army Officer and an avid adventurer. This fascinating and humorous autobiography follows the highs and the lows that inevitably come from being at the top of a professional sport. His refreshingly honest approach means that he offers real insight into the personalities and attitudes that make up the rugby world, as well as the lessons that he has learnt along the way to reach the pinnacle of his game.

One Chance

My Life and Rugby

Ronan O'Gara

Ronan O'Gara is one of the greatest sportsmen Ireland has ever produced. A brilliant kicker both from the hand and at penalty goals, a sublime orchestrator of play from the out-half position he has made his own, and a cool head in the pressure-cooker of club and international rugby, the list of the Cork man's achievements goes on and on. The leading points scorer in Irish rugby history, the Six Nations and the Heineken Cup. The architect of two amazing Munster triumphs in Europe. The man whose last minute drop-goal sensationally won the Grand Slam in 2009, Ireland's first for 61 years. 
 
In his candid, illuminating autobiography, O'Gara tells the story of those many on-field successes and, with brutal honesty, the darker days as well, most notably at the 2007 World Cup. He tells the inside story of Ireland's disappointments in France, and responds to the allegations about his personal life that made front-page news that autumn. Ronan O'Gara: My Autobiography is the unforgettable story of a rugby player at the top of his game, of a life lived to the full, and of a passionate and proud representative of the people of Cork and Ireland.

Cliff Morgan

Cliff Morgan, using BBC Sound Archive material, presents the history and humour of the great game of Rugby Union.No game generates more passion, or stirs the emotions, like Rugby Union. No game enjoys itself more when the whistle blows. And none has produced quite such good talkers, on or off the muddy pitch.Here, from the BBC’s unique Sound Archive, are memories of great teams, matches and tries, Grand Slams and famous internationals, the collected wit and wisdom of some of the legendary characters who have graced the game, and some of its most enthusiastic followers.Cliff Morgan introduces contributions from former players including Barry John, JPR Williams, Bill McLaren, Bill Beaumont, Gareth Edwards, Willie John McBride and Gerald Davies, and famous fans Spike Milligan and Richard Burton.

Rugby Union Wit, Wisdom And Mud

Paul Sculthorpe

PAUL SCULTHORPE is the man who was born to be a superstar. Touted as a future Great Britain skipper before he even played his first game as a professional, he has more than lived up to the billing over the ensuing years. 
 
The only player to ever be named Man of Steel in successive years, the St Helens captain is arguably the most talented man to grace a rugby league field in modern times. Yet Sculthorpe did not always have his sights set on Challenge Cup and Grand Final glory. As a youngster he spent his time booting a football around with brother Lee - and actually had to be forced into playing his first game of rugby. 
From that moment a star was born, as he went on to captain every side he represented, even though he was often playing a year above his age group. 
 
Warrington were the first to spot that potential, snapping him up on schoolboy terms, and helping shape the greatest player in Super League history. When he went hunting a bigger stage, St Helens had no hesitation paying a world record £370,000 - a transfer fee that quickly looked a bargain. 
Since then various rugby union clubs have sounded out the chances of tempting him into a code switch, while the biggest names in Australia would love to take the prize Pom Down Under. 
Throughout it all Scully has stayed true to his roots, even though that loyalty was sorely tested when knee injuries led to a whispering campaign that he was finished. 
 
Now Sculthorpe lifts the lid on a remarkable career. The highs and the lows; the friendships and the fall-outs; and where he feels his future REALLY lies. It's a no-holds barred account of one man's incredible rise to the top - and the steely determination which keeps him there.

Sculthorpe

Man of Steel

Rugby union has undergone immense change in the past two decades - introducing a World Cup, accepting professionalism and creating a global market in players - yet no authoritative English-language general history of the game has been published in that time. Until now. 
 
 A Game for Hooligans brings the game's colourful story up to date to include the 2007 World Cup. It covers all of the great matches, teams and players but also explores the social, political and economic changes that have affected the course of rugby's development. It is an international history, covering not only Britain and France but also the great rugby powers of the southern hemisphere and other successful rugby nations, including Argentina, Fiji and Japan. 
 
 Contained within are the answers to many intriguing questions concerning the game, such as why 1895 is the most important date in both rugby-union and rugby-league history and how New Zealand became so good and have remained so good for so long. There is also a wealth of anecdotes, including allegations of devil-worship at a Welsh rugby club and an account of the game's contribution to the Cuban Revolution. 
 
 This is a must-read for any fan of the oval ball.

A Game for Hooligans

The History of Rugby Union

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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