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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

William Skidelsky

A story of tennis, obsession and Roger Federer for tennis fans and the general reader alike. 
 
For much of the past decade, William Skidelsky has not been able to stop thinking about Roger Federer, the greatest and most graceful tennis player of all time. A devotion has been all-consuming. 
 
 
In Federer and Me, Skidelsky asks what it is about the Swiss star that transfixes him, and countless others. He dissects the wonders of his forehand, reflects on his rivalry with Nadal, revels in his victories and relives his most crushing defeats. 
 
 
But this is more than just a book about Federer. In charting his obsession, Skidelsky explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom, weaving his own past into the story. 
 
 
Thought-provoking and beautifully written, Federer and Me is a frank, funny and touching account of one fan's life. 
 
‘A splendid deconstruction of Federer’s technique’ Sunday Times

Federer and Me

A Story of Obsession

Judy Murray

The Sunday Times bestseller 
 
Judy Murray provides the ultimate insight into life with her tennis champion sons Andy and Jamie. 
 
What happens when you find you have exceptional children? 
Do you panic? Put your head in the sand? Or risk everything and jump in head first? 
 
As mother to tennis champions Jamie and Andy Murray, Scottish National Coach, coach of the Fed Cup, and general all-round can-do woman of wonder, Judy Murray is the ultimate role model for believing in yourself and reaching out to ambition. As a parent, coach, leader, she is an inspiration who has revolutionised British tennis. 
 
From the soggy community courts of Dunblane to the white heat of Centre Court at Wimbledon, Judy Murray’s extraordinary memoir charts the challenges she has faced, from desperate finances and growing pains to entrenched sexism. 
 
We all need a story of ‘yes we can’ to make us believe great things are possible. This is that story. 
 
 Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 
 
‘Quite simply, she is inspirational, passionate and great fun’ Observer

Knowing the Score

My Family and Our Tennis Story

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

Edward Schmit

A sizzling new adult sports romance, for fans of Heated Rivalry, Challengers, Carrie Soto is Back and Red, White and Royal Blue. 
 
Game. Set. Perfect Match? 
 
Recently-turned-pro tennis player Austin Hardy has been out since high school, and it’s never been a big deal. That is, until he becomes the first openly gay man to compete in a Grand Slam tournament. Suddenly, being gay is a huge deal. 
 
If the newly found fame wasn’t enough to send Austin spiralling, then tripping and falling in front of the very talented, very attractive, (probably) straight World #2, Diego Cruz, is the last straw. 
 
Only, the awkward gaffe marks the start of a blossoming friendship off the court. But when Diego admits his attraction to Austin, the flirty banter and mixed signals start to throw Austin off his game. And neither player wants to acknowledge their looming showdown at the fourth round of the US Open. 
 
Only one can win in the game of tennis, but who will win in the game of love?

The Open Era

Tony Hawks

'All I knew about Moldova were the names of eleven men printed on the inside back pages of my newspaper. None of them sounded to me like they were any good at tennis ...' 
 
An eccentric wager finds Tony Hawks, a man who loves an unusual challenge, bound for the little-known Eastern European state of Moldova. His mission: to track down members of the country's football team and persuade them to play him at tennis. The bizarre quest ultimately has little to do with tennis or football, but instead turns into an extraordinary journey involving the Moldovan underworld, gypsies, chronic power shortages, near kidnap, and a surprisingly tender relationship with his host family. 
 
Follow the fortunes of Tony in this hilarious and often moving adventure as it takes him from Moldova, onwards to Northern Ireland, leading to an exciting denouement in Nazareth - and the naked truth of the bet's final outcome ...

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis

Maria Sharapova

In the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them and they don't speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world's next great tennis star. They are right. 
 
This is Maria Sharapova's gripping and fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents had fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the US and her phenomenal rise to success - winning Wimbledon aged just seventeen - to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. Here the five-time Grand Slam winner gives us candid insights into her relationship with her father, who gave up his job and life in Russia to dedicate himself to his daughter; the truth behind her famous rivalry with Serena Williams; the injuries and suspension controversy that threatened to end it all. It's a story of of crazy luck, mistakes, rivalries, sacrifice, survival and, above all, the constant, unwavering determination to win.

Unstoppable

My Life So Far

Conor Niland

When Conor Niland was 16, he got the chance to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy. 
 
Conor Niland knows what it's like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room ('Ciao, bonjour, hello!'), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world's biggest tennis stadium - while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top. 
 
The Racket is the story of pro tennis's 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments. It brings us into a world where a few dozen super-rich players - travelling with coaches and physios - share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses. Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog's memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.

The Racket

On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%

Andy Murray

'With Andy, the sky's the limit...' John McEnroe 
 
At Wimbledon 2005, Andy Murray announced himself on the tennis world stage by thrashing star pros George Bastl and Radek Stepanek: a legend was born and Britain had a new sporting hero. 
 
From there, Andy's rise to the top has been unstoppable: from winning his first ATP title at San Jose in 2006 and deposing Tim Henman to become British Number 1, to beating a host of former and current World no. 1s - including Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal - Murray has gone from strength to strength. With his triumphant win at Queen's in June 2009, a storming performance at Wimbledon 2009 - which saw Andy reach the semi-finals for the first time - and his crowning as World Number 2, we have seen Murray reach even greater heights. 
 
But Murray is much more than a truly gifted tennis player: he has changed the face of the British game. His grit, passion and success on court, combined with his ranking as one of the world's best players, has reignited Britain's love of tennis and inspired a whole new generation of kids to become tennis fans. 
 
Here, in his updated story, Andy regales us with the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the near misses to show us just how far the boy from Dunblane has come.

Coming of Age

Billie Jean King

In this spirited account, Billie Jean King details her life's journey to find her true self. She recounts her groundbreaking tennis career -- six years as the top-ranked woman in the world, twenty Wimbledon championships, thirty-nine grand-slam titles, and her watershed defeat of Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes." She poignantly recalls the cultural backdrop of those years and the profound impact on her worldview from the women's movement, the assassinations and anti-war protests of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, and, eventually, the LGBTQ+ rights movement. 
 
She describes the myriad challenges she's hurdled -- entrenched sexism, an eating disorder, near financial ruin after being outed -- on her path to publicly and unequivocally acknowledging her sexual identity at the age of fifty-one. Hers is the story of a pathbreaking feminist, a world-class athlete, and an indomitable spirit whose impact has transcended even her spectacular achievements in sports.

All In

The Autobiography of Billie Jean King

Jon Henderson

Discover the ultimate read for any tennis fan. 
 
 'The first clear-eyed account of an extraordinary life' Independent on Sunday 
 
Wimbledon champion three times in the 1930s, Fred Perry is the finest tennis player that Britain has ever produced. Less well known is that Perry came from an unprivileged background and found himself - despite his supreme talent - an outsider in a sport that looked down on the advancement of the under-classes. 
 
Not afraid to ruffle a few establishment feathers, Perry discarded his hallowed amateur status in 1936 and turned professional. He compounded this perceived sin by taking out US citizenship when the Second World War broke out. He embraced his new country wholeheartedly. From Hollywood to Florida, Perry led a scandalous private life, marrying four times and charming himself into the beds of numerous Hollywood starlets and beautiful models along the way. 
 
The Last Champion is the first biography of Fred Perry. Through extensive research and revealing interviews, Jon Henderson, tennis correspondent of the Observer, brilliantly tells the remarkable story of this remarkable man. 
 
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

The Last Champion

The Life of Fred Perry

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