Dougie Poynter has been obsessed with dinosaurs ever since visiting the Natural History Museum when he was about three. He is passionate about the natural world and a keen conservationist, working with charities such as WWF and Greenpeace to get harmful products banned and to clean up the planet. 
 
Dougie wrote songs together with Tom Fletcher for years in bands McFly and McBusted; they now write their bestselling Dinosaur that Pooped books in the same way that they write their song lyrics. The books have sold over a million copies!

Dougie Poynter

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George Plimpton

After forays into American football, golf and the world of professional boxing, George Plimpton accepts his riskiest assignment yet: taking to the ice as goalie for his beloved National Hockey League team, the Boston Bruins. Signing a release holding the Bruins blameless if he should meet with injury or worse, his initiation into the league’s toughest tribe begins. But when the Bruins find themselves up against the equally fearsome Philadelphia Flyers, a mere five minutes in the rink can seem an eternity. 
 
Told with Plimpton’s characteristic humour and insight, Open Net is at once a celebration of the thrills and grace of the greatest sport on ice, and a probing meditation into the hopes and fears of every man.

Open Net

A Professional Amateur in the World of Big-Time Hockey

The Cycling Podcast

Readers as well as listeners can now embark on a journey through the cycling year with The Cycling Podcast, which has been entertaining and informing fans since 2013. 
 
Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe share their diaries from three incident-filled Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España. These take readers behind the scenes and explore the culture and landscape as well as the racing, while the ‘Lionel of Flanders’, complete with beer recommendations, does the same for the Classics in Belgium. 
 
There are appearances, too, by leading journalists and podcast favourites François Thomazeau, who takes responsiblity for the French Tour de France jinx, Ciro Scognamiglio, with a heartfelt love letter to cult favourite Filippo Pozzato, Fran Reyes, who pens a farewell to El Pistolero, Alberto Contador, and Orla Chennaoui, who hits the road to cover La Course in a one-woman karaoke-booth-on-wheels. 
 
Further contributions from professional riders Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Joe Dombrowski and the voice of the Tour de France, Sebastien Piquet, as well as stunning galleries from the podcast world’s first and only dedicated photographer, Simon Gill, make this the perfect celebration of a year in cycling.

A Journey Through the Cycling Year

Ronald Reng

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

Keeper of Dreams

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

Ben Ainslie

Knife-edge decisions, adrenalin rushes, extreme weather, bitter rivalries, heart-stopping races – they are all in a day’s work for Ben Ainslie. 
 
Against all odds, in the London 2012 Olympics Ben Ainslie thrillingly won a fourth successive gold medal, making him the greatest ever Olympic sailor and a British hero, chosen from many to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremony. 
 
From his proudest moment representing Team GB, to one tough decision that almost risked destroying his career, this is a unique insight into the man who cannot let himself be second best. It shows what really takes place in the white heat of competition and lifts the lid on this toughest of sports. 
 
REVISED AND UPDATED FOR PAPERBACK TO INCLUDE LONDON 2012.

Ben Ainslie: Close to the Wind

Britain's Greatest Olympic Sailor

Teddy Jamieson

From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. Life was tough for these working-class lads, but they could shine on the football field or find refuge at the town boxing club. 
 
For other kids, like the young Teddy Jamieson, a knockabout in the back-lanes was as good as it got, but at least they had their heroes. Watching McGuigan on telly, Teddy could feel proud to be Northern Irish. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved. 
 
This extraordinary journey through sport and the Troubles has it all: from Olympic gold-medals to Gaelic football; from death threats to reconciliations. Then there is Teddy's own story, as we learn how the age-old playground question 'Whose side are you on?' doesn't always have an easy answer.

Whose Side Are You On?

From the author of Paper Lion 
 
Following his turn as a Detroit Lions rookie in Paper Lion, George Plimpton returns to the field of American football and focuses on the careers of his Lions teammates, Alex ‘Mad Duck’ Karras and John ‘the Bear’ Gordy. What he uncovers is a fond tribute to the values and follies of this brutal, but captivating game. 
 
Paper Lion was the quintessential look at a football team behind the scenes and its companion, Mad Ducks and Bears, offers an astute exploration into the fascinating lives, thoughts and motivations of the players at home, in the locker room, and on the field.

Mad Ducks and Bears

Football Revisited

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

Jon Hotten

The Years of the Locust is a true story of intrigue, paranoia, murder and money set in the shimmering cities of America's South in the 1990s. It's the story of two men who never should have met, and when they did, one killed the other. There are walk-on parts for Don King, George Foreman, the FBI and a fallen NFL hero, yet it's the two central characters - sociopathic door-to-door-sales-king-turned-boxing-promoter Rick 'Elvis' Parker and his loyal, naive and ultimately incorruptible fighter Tim Anderson - that make this story extraordinary and unforgettable. 
 
It would be impossible to invent a man like Rick Parker, a freakishly fat ginger-haired giant who modelled his personal style on Elvis Presley and wanted to become the next Don King. Don himself told Rick how to do it - find a white man who could become the heavyweight champion of the world. Then Rick met Tim Anderson, a handsome, funny former baseball pro - was he the fighter to take Parker all the way? Rick left a trail of fixed fights and violent mayhem all across the South, but his dream stayed out of reach. By the end of his reign of terror Tim would be broke, poisoned and facing the hardest choice of all. And now Tim is doing life without parole in a state prison, and Rick - well, Rick's dead. 
 
By juxtaposing the lives of these two extraordinary men, The Years of the Locust turns a remarkable, riotous true-crime story into a profound examination of chance, choices and remorse - one that's scary, sad and blackly, bleakly funny.

The Years of the Locust

A True Story of Murder, Money and Mayhem in the Last Age of Boxing

Hugo Borst

‘Am I so smart or are you so stupid?’ – Louis van Gaal 
 
I started out wanting to write a book about Marco van Basten. I still do, but I dread the moment when I have to write something I know will make him unhappy. He’s not a man you wage war on. With Louis van Gaal it’s different: as a journalist he leaves you no choice. You’re not worthy of the name if you aren’t prepared to return fire when he starts yelling. 
 
Hugo Borst is an award-winning writer, journalist and TV pundit. He is also a close friend of Louis van Gaal. Well, he used to be. 
 
O, Louis is Hugo’s attempt to get to grips with this larger-than-life character. Full of outrageous stories and unintentionally hilarious encounters, Borst details his quest to understand the man and the breakdown in their friendship. He interviews an array of experts who each interpret the great manager from the perspective of their own field – a cleric, a politician, a psychiatrist, an impersonator, 
a theatre director, writers, poets and a trio of keen comic minds. Through these meetings as well as through his own encounters with Van Gaal, Borst is finally able to unlock the personality of this exceptional, talented, infuriating and even, occasionally, loveable man. 
 
‘This book will sell well. Everything that has my face on it sells well’ – Louis van Gaal

O, Louis

In Search of Louis van Gaal

Professional cycling is a rich, dynamic and often controversial sport that lends itself to great writing. Some of the most famous and illustrious races were founded by newspapermen and The Cycling Anthology continues this tradition by bringing together the best in the business. 
 
Volume Four features original and exclusive pieces by leading cycling writers. William Fotheringham remembers the journalist who was instrumental in bringing road-racing to a British audience; Ellis Bacon looks beyond Queen to the link between bikes and beats; Richard Moore finds out what happened to that ‘little punk’ (Lance Armstrong’s words), Iban Mayo, and asks if he really did become a long-distance lorry driver; Daniel Friebe re-examines the ups and downs of Marco Pantani; Tom Southam explains what it’s like not to ride the Tour de France; and much more. 
 
Between them, these writers have covered hundreds of Tours de France and written dozens of excellent books and some have even ridden the Tour. Here, their work is showcased together.

The Cycling Anthology

Volume Four (4/5)

Marc 'Elvis' Priestley

In the high-octane atmosphere of the Formula One pit lane, the spotlight is most often on the superstar drivers. And yet, without the technical knowledge, competitive determination and outright obsession from his garage of mechanics, no driver could possibly hope to claim a spot on the podium. These are the guys who make every World Champion, and any mistakes can have critical consequences. 
 
That's not to say the F1 crew is just a group of highly skilled technical engineers, tweaking machinery in wind tunnels and crunching data through high-spec computers. These boys can seriously let their hair down. Whether it be parties on luxury yachts in Monaco or elaborate photo opportunities in gravity-defying aeroplanes, this is a world which thrills on and off the track. 
 
Join McLaren's former number-one mechanic, Marc 'Elvis' Priestley as he tours the world, revealing some of Formula One's most outrageous secrets and the fiercest rivalries, all fuelled by the determination to win. 
 
This is Formula One as you've never seen it before.

The Mechanic

The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane

Jonathan Rendall

Hello, is that Jonathan Rendall?' 
 
'Speaking.' 
 
'My name's Rachel Cugnoni. I'm calling from Yellow Jersey Press and I have a proposal for you. I'm looking for someone to give £12,000 to but the catch is they have to spend it all on gambling - horses, the dogs, casinos, boxing, golf, footie, that sort of thing - and then write a book about it. Any profits made are entirely that person's but if they lose it all I still want my book. It's high risk but without wanting to assume too much, I've heard a bit about you and somehow I thought it may appeal. Think about it - you'd have the opportunity to lay some serious bets offering serious returns, you could play hard ball in poker games for once, even go to Vegas and, as I said, those winnings are yours to blow in whatever way you wish'. 
 
'When do I start?

Twelve Grand

Timothy O'Grady

Weather, hazards, poor coordination, erratic biorhythms, hangovers, an unruly mind and statistical improbability - these are just a few of the obstacles to hitting a pure golf shot. Che Guevara, Alice Cooper, Dennis Hopper, and Tiger Woods have all struggled with the above to a greater or lesser degree. And, since being initiated as a child into the arcane mysteries of the game of golf, Timothy O'Grady too has carried in his mind an obsession with the sport, shrugging off its social unacceptability and embracing its history, its literature and his own private battle with the club.   For O'Grady, the obsession has, at times, been all-consuming and On Golf is structured around a personal history - how his father played and taught him, how the game dominated his teenage years, and how father and son continued to talk manically about the game even as the older man lay fading away in the bed in which he would die. But O'Grady also discusses the rich literature of golf, from Tobias Smollett to P. G. Wodehouse, and tells us of the terrifying and glorious occasion when he got to play a round with Arnold Palmer. On Golf is the work of a great writer and a good golfer. Timothy O'Grady still dreams that he may one day become a truly fine player but in the meantime he has given us a book which beautifully describes his love affair with the game and goes to the root of the obsession that captivates so many.

On Golf

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

David Rensin

There will never be another surfer like Miki 'Da Cat' Dora. For twenty years the dashing and enigmatic dark prince of California surfing dominated the Malibu waves and his peers' imaginations, blazing a trail that would inspire generations to come. But when the sport exploded into the mainstream and surfing changed for ever, Dora's paradise was lost. 
 
Outraged at gridlocked swells and a scene that had grown ever more commodified, Dora eventually fled Malibu, seeking empty waves - and anonymity - beyond America. He'd also run afoul of the law, and he led the authorities on a seven-year chase around the globe. Yet, Dora would never give up searching for the spirit of the Malibu he'd lost. Wherever he made his home - New Zealand, South Africa, France - he personified the rebel heart of surfing and became a legend in his own time. 
 
This brilliant biography, based on interviews with more than three hundred people who knew Dora, finally uncovers the truth about surfing's most seductive and complicated icon.

All For A Few Perfect Waves

The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CYCLING IN FIVE VOLUMES 
 
Volume One of The Cycling Anthology, a collection of the best writing on cycling by some of the sport's leading writers. Between them, they’ve covered hundreds of Tours de France and written dozens of excellent books and some have even ridden the Tour. Now, their work is showcased together for the first time. 
 
Volume One features original and exclusive pieces by leading cycling writers, including: 
 
- William Fotheringham disects Bradley Wiggins' transformation from track superstar to becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France 
- David Millar discusses retirement and dark secrets as his friends' careers start to fade 
- Daniel Friebe uncovers the fascinating role statistics has to play in cycling 
- Jeremy Whittle follows Team Sky to assess the Lance Armstrong's legacy to the sport

Volume One (1/5)

Derek Lundy

'One of the best books ever written about sailing' 
Time 
 
27,000 miles, three and a half to five months alone at sea, chilling casualty rates, the unrelenting strain of handling 60-foot boats day and night, the absolute certainty of weather and waves that could destroy them. 
 
On 3 November 1996 sixteen sailors set out from the Bay of Biscay to embark on the Vendee Globe - a single-handed yacht race through the world's most treacherous and isolated seas. 
 
Of the sixteen starters only six completed the course, six others withdrew or were disqualified, three were plucked from sinking boats and one disappeared without trace. 
 
This is a book about the sea: how we are dawn to it and how it repels us and about why these men and women risk everything to embark on such a perilous journey. 
 
TWENTIETH ANNIVESARY EDITION, WITH A NEW FOREWORD FROM THE AUTHOR.

The Godforsaken Sea

From the author of Paper Lion 
 
It began as a fun filled stunt and came to a deeply hellish, nearly humiliating end. George Plimpton had the chance to answer every baseball fan’s question: could I strike out a major league star? Out of My League chronicles what happened next as his inspired idea – to get on the mound and pitch a few innings to the All-Stars of the American and National Leagues – got seriously out of hand. 
 
The original foray into participatory journalism that started it all, Out of my League announced George Plimpton as a giant of sports journalism, able to penetrate deep into the very spirit of sport, with his characteristic wit, charm and grace.

Out of my League

An Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball

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

Ruy Castro

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

Garrincha

The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero

Richard Askwith

LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 
 
The definitive biography of one of the greatest, most extraordinary runners and Olympic heroes of all time, from the author of running classic Feet in the Clouds. 
 
 
Emil Zátopek won five Olympic medals, set 18 world records, and went undefeated over 10,000 metres for six years. He redefined the boundaries of endurance, training in Army boots, in snow, in sand, in darkness. But his toughness was matched by a spirit of friendship and a joie de vivre that transcended the darkest days of the Cold War. 
 
His triumphs put his country on the map, yet when Soviet tanks moved in to crush Czechoslovakia’s new freedoms in 1968, Zátopek paid a heavy personal price for his brave defence of ‘socialism with a human face’. Rehabilitated two decades later, he was a shadow of the man he had been – and the world had all but forgotten him. 
 
Today We Die A Little strips away the myths to tell the complex and deeply moving story of the most inspiring Olympic hero of them all.

Today We Die a Little

Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero

Tim Lewis

** Winner of the British Sports Book Awards 2014 New Writer of the Year ** 
 
Where there is hope there can be redemption. 
 
 Meet Adrien Niyonshuti, a member of the Rwandan cycling team. Adrien was seven years old when he lost his family in the 1994 genocide that tore Rwanda apart. Almost twenty years later he has a shot at representing his country at the Olympics. 
 
 Meet Jock Boyer, the coach of Team Rwanda. One of the top American cyclists of all time, Jock recognises the innate talent for endurance that the Rwandans possess. A man with a dark past, Jock is in need of a second chance. 
 
 Meet Tom Ritchey, the visionary inventor of the mountain bike and the U.S. money man looking to recover from a profound personal crisis. 
 
 In The Land of Second Chances, Tim Lewis charts the incredible true story of the Rwandan cycling team as they overcome impossible odds to inspire a nation.

Land of Second Chances

The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team

Anna Krien

*Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2014* 
 
What does a sportsman do to cut loose? At night, some play what they think of as pranks, or games. Night games with women. In the closely-knit world of top-level sport, what happens when the bonds that join teammates on the pitch twist into something darker after the final whistle? 
 
Night Games follows the rape trial of a young footballer. It is both a real-life courtroom drama and an exemplary piece of investigative journalism. Fearlessly and without prejudice, Anna Krien shines a light into the darkest recesses of sports culture.

Night Games

A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport

Professional cycling is a rich, dynamic and often controversial sport that lends itself to great writing. Some of the most famous and illustrious races were founded by newspapermen and The Cycling Anthology continues this tradition by bringing together the best in the business. 
 
Volume Five is an eclectic mix of stories old and new: 
 
As World War One is commemorated acros the globe, Brendan Gallagher looks at cycling's war heroes and the role the bicycle played in WWI. 
 
Jeremy Whittle goes in search of panache - why you don't always have to be a winner to be a winner in the public's eyes. 
 
Francois Thomazeau examines how the Tour de France became the international event it is today. 
 
The 2014 Tour de France is relived in the form of poetry, by Ellis Bacon. 
 
Lionel Birnie tells the story behind the Linda McCartney cycling team, the great British team that could have been. 
 
Joey McLoughlin was a shining star of the British cycling scene in the 1980s and '90s - Andy McGrath finds out what happened to him. 
 
Edward Pickering returns to one of cycling's great Pyrenean climbs - Superbagneres. 
 
As Matt Beaudin finds out, the Tour de France is a treat for the senses - albeit a loud one. 
 
Matt McGeehan sends a postcard from the 2014 World Track Championships in Colombia. 
 
And Daniel Friebe introduces us to Jean Francois Naquet-Radiguet: Tour de France pioneer.

Volume Five (5/5)

From the author of Paper Lion 
 
Stepping into the ring against light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore, George Plimpton pauses to wonder what ever induced him to become a participatory journalist. Bloodied but unbowed, he holds his own in the bout – and brings back this timeless book on boxing and its devotees, among them Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ernest Hemingway, and Norman Mailer. 
 
 
Shadow Box is one of Plimpton’s most engaging portraits of professional sport seen through the eyes of an inquisitive and astute hopeful. From the gym, the locker room, the ringside, and even in the harsh glare of the ring itself, Plimpton documents what it truly means to be a boxer in some of the finest writing of his career.

Shadow Box

An Amateur in the Ring

Professional cycling is a rich, dynamic and often controversial sport that lends itself to great writing. Some of the most famous and illustrious races were founded by newspapermen and The Cycling Anthology continues this tradition by bringing together the best in the business. 
 
Volume Three features original and exclusive pieces by leading cycling writers. Ned Boulting goes behind the scenes at the 2013 Tour de France to get to know the second British winner in two years, Chris Froome; Richard Moore tells the story of Marianne Martin, winner of the first women's Tour de France; Lionel Birnie recounts the story of the Tour of Britian through the prism of the 2013 edition; Jeremy Whittle assess how the aftermath of Lance Armstrong's sensational confession affected Team Sky; and many more. 
 
Between them, they’ve covered hundreds of Tours de France and written dozens of excellent books and some have even ridden the Tour. Here, their work is showcased together.

Volume Three (3/5)

Kevin Mitchell

Gangsters have been around boxing for ever. When boxing took hold in Madison Square Garden just after the First World War, a new wave of criminals moved in: the Mob. It was then that Prohibition gave street legitimacy to organised crime right across America; and by the time Joe Louis arrived to breathe excitement through a country ravaged by the Great Depression, the wise guys were firmly entrenched at ringside. Mike Jacobs, the grizzled boss of boxing at the Garden for nearly twenty years, made the Brown Bomber the biggest sports star in the world, and a string of romantic writers ensured this would be remembered as the fight game's golden age. They mingled with underworld heavies along a strip of New York pavement near the Garden known only as Jacobs Beach. 
 
Kevin Mitchell's gripping book is the unsanitised story of those times and that place, of Rat Pack cool and the fading of the Mob's peculiar glamour, brilliantly told through the eyes of the men who were there.

Jacobs Beach

The Mob, the Garden, and the Golden Age of Boxing

Paul Kimmage

An eye-opening expose of and a heart-breaking lament for professional cycling 
 
Paul Kimmage's boyhood dreams were of cycling glory: wearing the yellow jersey, cycling the Tour de France, becoming a national hero. He knew it wouldn't come easy, but he was prepared to put in the graft. The dedication paid off – he finished sixth in the World Championships as an amateur and in 1986, he turned professional. 
 
He soon discovered it wasn't about courage, training hours or how much you wanted to win. It was about gruelling defeats, total exhaustion, and drugs - drugs that would allow you to finish the race and start another day. 
 
 Kimmage ultimately left the sport to write this book – profoundly honest and ground-breaking, Rough Ride broke the silence surrounding the issue of drugs in sport, and documents one man’s love for, and struggle with, the complex world of professional cycling. 
 
 ‘A must read for any cyclist’ Cyclist 
WINNER OF WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR

Rough Ride

Behind the Wheel with a Pro Cyclist

Ned Boulting

Join Ned Boulting as he reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we’re oft told, the biggest annual sporting event in the world. 
 
101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorkshire, even some stunning scenery not far from Bradford). 
 
From Leeds to Paris (how often do you say that?), Ned details the minutiae of his encounters with the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, David Millar, Chris Froome, Chris Boardman (or ‘Broadman’ as some would have it), Marcel Kittel, Mrs Cavendish (Mark’s wife), Peter Sagan and the rest. Their endeavours, achievements, humour and occasional rancour, sit alongside his own decade-long quest for the ideal end-of-race T-shirt. 
 
Ned weaves together the interesting, amusing and unheralded threads of the race itself, and reflects on his own perennial struggle to get round, get on and get by. 101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth.

101 Damnations

Dispatches from the 101st Tour de France

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