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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

Taylor Jenkins Reid

***NEW NOVEL ATMOSPHERE COMING JUNE 2025 – PREORDER NOW*** 
 
From the bestselling author of MALIBU RISING, DAISY JONES & THE SIX and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO 
 
'It made me cry twice, and when I finished reading, I had to sit for a minute with the hole it left in my chest . . . just order it' EMILY HENRY 
 
'A crowd-pleaser. Taylor Jenkins Reid captures all the sweat, rivalry and glamour of elite sport' THE TIMES 
 
'Jenkins Reid has written yet another page turner . . . [it] will have you hooked' INDEPENDENT 
 
Carrie Soto is the greatest player the world has ever seen. 
 
But six years after her last match, she watches a young British tennis player steal her world record - and Carrie knows she has to go back and reclaim her rightful place at the top. Even if the world doesn't believe in her. Even if it almost breaks her. 
 
This is a story about the cost of greatness and the burden of fame. 
 
The fight for a place in history is about to begin . . . 
 
'It artfully combines the heady glamour of elite sport with questions about what happens when we find ourselves winning professionally, but losing personally' STYLIST 
 
'One of my favourite authors ever . . . I don't think I've ever felt so strongly about an author' FEARNE COTTON 
 
'A portrait of female ambition in all its raw and divine glory, Carrie Soto will stay with you long after the last page is turned' ERIN KELLY 
 
 
Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Sunday Times bestseller, April 2023

Carrie Soto Is Back

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

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

Novak Djokovic

'A remarkable book' The Independent 
'... a revelatory read.' The Guardian 
 
What readers are saying: 
 
***** 'A lot more than just the diet Djokovic follows. It's about his whole approach to life' 
***** 'Revolutionised my diet. A year on, I feel like a different person and much healthier' 
 
In Serve to Win, Djokovic recounts how he survived the bombing of Belgrade, rising from a war-torn childhood to the top tier of his sport. He also reveals the diet that transformed his health and pushed him to the pinnacle. 
 
While Djokovic loved and craved bread, pasta and the pizza from his family's restaurant, he discovered that his body couldn't process wheat. 
 
A player once plagued by aches, breathing difficulties and injuries on court suddenly became the number-one tennis player in the world simply by changing what he ate. Eliminating gluten made him feel instantly better, clearer, lighter and quicker. His new physical health and mental focus enabled him to achieve his two childhood dreams: to win Wimbledon and to be ranked the world's number-one tennis player. 
 
He has gone on to win 22 Grand Slams, crediting his diet with making this possible. 
 
Djokovic challenges you to try his way of eating for just 14 days. He provides weekly menus and easy-to-prepare recipes that will help you lose weight and find your way to a better you. You don't need to be a professional athlete to start living and feeling better. A trimmer, stronger, healthier you is just two weeks away.

Serve To Win

Novak Djokovic’s life story with diet, exercise and motivational tips

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

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

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

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%

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

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

Sue Barker

'The thing about our Sue is that she just is Wimbledon.' John McEnroe 
 
Sue Barker first walked through those famous wrought-iron gates aged 13 in 1969 to play in the National Schools event. What Sue didn't know then, was that every year for the next half century, she would be back in some capacity. As a junior, aged 15, as a semi-finalist and Grand-Slam winner ranked No.3 in the world, as a broadcaster leading the BBC coverage for thirty years and for the first time, as a fan in 2023. 
 
And now she returns as a storyteller. 
 
The magic has stayed the same,but times have changed. With her first-hand insight and perspective, Sue paints an intimate portrait of the place, past and present, full of behind-the-scenes details drawn from her own experiences as well as personal conversations with her former mentors, contemporary players, friends and colleagues - giants of the game such as Rod Laver, Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Roger Federer, Venus Williams and many others. They share poignant memories with her and some startling revelations, from Sampas's deep regret that he didn't involve his parents more in his Centre Court triumphs to Borg divulging that McEnroe was always the quietest presence in the locker room ... You cannot be serious! 
 
From the most talked-about matches and famous rivalries to the fashions and trends, from the stunning breakthroughs, to the near wins and gut-wrenching disappointments, Sue's personal history of Wimbledon is touched throughout by Championship stardust and is as tightly packed with stories as the courts are with blades of grass.

Wimbledon

A personal history

Chris Gorringe

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

Holding Court

Meg Jones

They’re rivals on the court. But off it? That’s where things get messy…Inés Costa, Spain’s golden girl, hasn’t won a Grand Slam since her breakout two years ago. Now, injuries and sky-high expectations are threatening to take her down.Enter Chloe Murphy: brash, brilliant, and America’s newest tennis obsession. With her eyes on another US Open title, she has no time for washed-up has-beens. . . or inconvenient feelings.But when a twist of fate forces the two into each other’s orbit, sparks fly in all the wrong — and oh-so-right — ways.The game is fierce. The chemistry is fiercer. 
And with the world watching, they'll have to decide what they're really playing for.

Set Point

Edward Schmit

A sizzling, new adult sports romance, for fans of 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

When Aussie Dylan Bailey walks away from her tenth grand slam without a title, she decides to call in for early retirement. But after spending time with fellow pro and British player Oliver Anderson, he convinces her she still has one last title fight left in her.Together, they embark on a journey of rediscovery and second chances, as Dylan and Oliver navigate the highs and lows of professional tennis while falling deeper in love with each passing match.

Game Point

Daisy Picture Books

The Christmasaurus Picture Book

Mrs Pepperpot Picture Books

Princess Poppy Picture Books

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