Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Michael Hutchinson

The Hour. It's the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed. No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes. Just one simple question - in sixty minutes, how far can you go? 
 
Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders, cycling's supermen. But how does a man who became a professional athlete by accident achieve sporting immortality? It didn't sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else's bank account. Still, getting the glue wasn't a problem... 
 
Michael Hutchinson became a full-time cyclist in 2000 after becoming disillusioned with an academic career. Over the following six years he has won more than twenty national titles, and the gold medal in the Masters' Pursuit World Championships. He is now a writer and journalist (and cyclist) and lives in south London.

The Hour

Sporting immortality the hard way

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

George Plimpton

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

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

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

John Jeremiah Sullivan

One evening late in his life, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan was asked by his son what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. The answer came as a surprise. 'I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was ... just beauty, you know?' 
 
John Jeremiah Sullivan didn't know, not really, but he spent two years finding out, journeying from prehistoric caves to the Kentucky Derby. The result is Blood Horses, a wise, humorous and often beautiful memoir exploring the relationship between man and horse and the relationship between a sportswriter’s son and his late father.

Blood Horses

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

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

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

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?

William Fotheringham

Discover the story of Britain’s ultimate cyclist and his ill-fated race during the 1967 Tour de France, from the bestselling author of Half Man Half Bike 
 
Tom Simpson was an Olympic medallist, world champion and the first Briton to wear the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France. He died a tragic early death during the 1967 Tour. A man of contradictions, Simpson was one of the first cyclists to admit to using banned drugs, and was accused of fixing races, yet the dapper 'Major Tom' inspired awe and affection for the obsessive will to win which was ultimately to cost him his life. 
 
 Put Me Back on My Bike revisits the places and people associated with Simpson to produce the definitive story of Britain's greatest ever cyclist. The fully revised and updated edition of William Fotheringham's classic biography features a new foreword and postscript further exploring the truth behind the legend. 
 
‘The best cycling biography ever written' Velo 
 ‘A beautiful explanation of why Simpson's legend still exerts such a powerful hold’ Sunday Times

Put Me Back on My Bike

In Search of Tom Simpson

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

Mike Stroud

Discover the secrets of how to perform at your best in 2019 
 
In this fascinating book based soundly in medical science, Mike Stroud - of BBC Television's The Challenge and SAS: Are You Tough Enough? - sets out the genetics, diet and exercise that enable humans to perform at their peak. Dr Stroud - polar explorer, practising hospital physician, and a former adviser to the Ministry of Defence - analyses individual feats of survival and athletic prowess that illustrate the way the body functions at its best. He dissects his own challenging experiences of crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes, running marathons in the Sahara and participating in gruelling cross-country endurance races in the United States and gives some tips on how to stay fit for life for those of us who find walking the dog an endurance challenge... 
 
This revised edition includes the story of Dr Stroud and Sir Ranulph Fiennes' incredible 2003 global marathon challenge - seven marathons on seven continents in seven days - in aid of the British Heart Foundation. 
 
'The ultimate sporting diet documented in mouth-watering detail' The Times

Survival Of The Fittest

The Anatomy of Peak Physical Performance

Tommy Simpson

The cyclist Tom Simpson is a legend. The first British world champion, the first Briton to pull on the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France - he brought professional cycling to a nation and inspired generations of riders. His autobiography, Cycling is My Life, was written the year before he died tragically on the barren moonscape of Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour aged just twenty-nine. Forty years on, hundreds of fans still make the pilgrimage to the windswept memorial which marks the spot where he died. 
 
In an age where each Tour de France seems more blighted by scandal than the next, Simpson's story is as relevant now as it was then. A man of contradictions, Simpson was one of the first cyclists to admit to using banned drugs, yet the dapper 'Major Tom' inspired awe and affection from the British public for the obsessive will to win which was ultimately to cost him his life. 
 
First published in 1966, Simpson's autobiography is essential reading for every dedicated cycling fan and an engaging story of the life of an iconic sportsman.

Cycling is My Life

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 WINNER OF THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
 Why does an international footballer with the world at his feet decide to take his own life? 
 
 On 10 November 2009 the German national goalkeeper, Robert Enke, stepped in front of a passing train. He was thirty-two years old and a devoted husband and father. 
 
 Enke had played for a string of Europe's top clubs, including Barcelona and Jose Mourinho's Benfica and was destined to become his country's first choice in goal for years to come. But beneath the veneer of success, Enke battled with crippling depression. 
 
 Award-winning writer Ronald Reng pieces together the puzzle of his friend's life, shedding valuable light on the crushing pressures endured by professional sportsmen and on life at the top clubs. At its heart, Enke's tragedy is a universal story of a man struggling against his demons. 
 
‘It should be on every British football fan's reading list’ Metro

A Life Too Short

The Tragedy of Robert Enke

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

Jo Pavey

The inspirational story of athlete Jo Pavey, the runner and mum who ran at a record-breaking fifth Olympic Games at Rio 2016. 
 
'Come-back races? I've had more than a few, the night of 10 May 2014 was the ultimate long shot. I was a forty-year-old mother of two who had given birth eight months before. I trained on a treadmill in a cupboard by the back door and I was wearing a running vest older than most of the girls I was competing against. Was I crazy?' 
 
Jo Pavey was forty years old when she won the 10,000m at the European Championships. It was the first gold medal of her career and, astonishingly, it came within months of having her second child. 
 
The media dubbed her ‘Supermum’, but Jo’s story is in many ways the same as every mother juggling the demands of working life with a family – the sleepless nights, the endless nappy changing, the fun, the laughter and the school-run chaos. The only difference is that Jo is a full-time athlete pushing a buggy on her training runs, clocking up miles on the treadmill in a cupboard while her daughter has her lunchtime nap, and hitting the track while her children picnic on the grass. 
 
Heartwarming and uplifting, This Mum Runs follows Jo’s roundabout journey to the top and all the lessons she's learnt along the way. It is the inspiring yet everyday story of a mum that runs and a runner that mums.

This Mum Runs

Laurent Fignon

'Ah, I remember you: you're the guy who lost the Tour de France by eight seconds!' 
'No monsieur, I'm the guy who won the Tour twice. 
 
The international bestselling autobiography of the legendary French cyclist Laurent Fignon 
 
 Two-time winner of the Tour de France in the early eighties, Laurent Fignon became the star for a new generation. In the 1989 tour, he lost out to his American arch-rival, Greg LeMond, by an agonising eight seconds. 
 
 In this revealing account, the former champion spares nobody, not even himself, and pulls back the curtain on what really went on behind the scenes of this epic sport - the friendships, the rivalries, the betrayals, the parties, the girls and, of course, the performance-enhancing drugs. Fignon's story bestrides a golden age in cycling: a time when the headlines spoke of heroes, not doping, and a time when cyclists were afraid of nothing. 
 
‘Sports book of the year: He's ruthlessly honest, about himself and about cycling, and he provides a gripping insight into an unrelenting hard world’ Independent

We Were Young and Carefree

The Autobiography of Laurent Fignon

Stefan Fatsis

For many, Scrabble is merely a board game. For others it is an intellectual pilgrimage. In this book, Stefan Fatsis, journalist and self-confessed word freak, goes in search of the people for whom Scrabble is life and affords us a glimpse into the extraordinary world of the brilliant geeks and misfit savants who populate the highest ranks of the game. 
 
Playing competitively in tournaments across the world, Fatsis chronicles the story of how Scrabble has grown from a diversion invented by an unemployed architect during The Great Depression into the hugely successful, challenging and beloved game of today.

Word Freak

A Journey Into the Eccentric World of the Most Obsessive Board Game Ever Invented

Jeremy Whittle

Even the biggest cycling fan can one day wake up to find that he has lost his faith 
 
 Bad Blood is the story of Jeremy Whittle's journey from unquestioning fan to Tour de France insider and confirmed sceptic. It's about broken friendships and a sport divided; about having to choose sides in the war against doping; about how galloping greed and corporate opportunism have led the Tour de France to the brink of destruction. 
 
Part personal memoir, part devastating exposé of a sport torn apart by drugs and scandal, Bad Blood is a love letter to one man's past, and a warning to cycling's future. 
 
‘Whatever you think about doping, you must read this book ... Well-balanced, considered, compelling’ Rouleur 
 
Shortlisted for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year

Bad Blood

The Secret Life of the Tour de France

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

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

Bradley Wiggins

On 22 July 2012 Bradley Wiggins made history as the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. Ten days later at the London Olympic Games he won gold in the time trial to become his country’s most decorated Olympian. In an instant ‘Wiggo’, the kid from Kilburn, was a national hero. 
 
Outspoken, honest, intelligent and fearless, Wiggins has been hailed as the people’s champion. From his lowest ebb following a catastrophic attempt to conquer the 2012 Tour and the loss of his granddad who had raised him as a boy, My Time tells the story of his remarkable journey to win the world's toughest race. 
 
INCLUDES A BRAND NEW CHAPTER 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARD FOR BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Bradley Wiggins - My Time

An Autobiography

Simon Jordan

The ultimate gift for every football fan. Ever dreamed of owning your boyhood football club? Be careful what you wish for... 
 
Simon Jordan grew up a stone's throw from Crystal Palace Football Club. As a boy he used to break into the Palace ground for a kick-about on the hallowed turf. On leaving school he entered the mobile phone business. By the age of thirty-two, he'd built a company from nothing, sold it for £75 million and bought his childhood club. By the age of forty-two Palace was in administration and Jordan had lost nigh on everything. 
 
Be Careful What You Wish For lifts the lid on the owner's story and reveals for the first time how the national game really works. Jordan spares no one, least of all himself, as he takes us inside a world where hopes and aspirations sit alongside greed, self-interest, overpriced players, dodgy transfers and top-level incompetence. He doesn't hold back. 
 
Breathtakingly honest, highly controversial, humorous and full of jaw-dropping anecdotes, this is far more than a football book. It is a social commentary on the culture of great wealth and ambition; a Shakespearean tragedy that exposes the dark side of chasing a dream. 
 
‘If you are a football fan and have not read this book, you are missing out’ John Inverdale 
 
‘One hell of a read’ Sport Magazine 
 
'One of the best football books you will ever read' Birmingham Post

Be Careful What You Wish For

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

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

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

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

Richard Williams

For tens of millions of people around the world, a single name evokes the world of speed - Enzo Ferrari. Today's Formula One would be unthinkable without the presence of the Ferrari cars on the grid. Win or lose, Ferrari attract more fans than all the other teams combined. And the cars unique appeal - their mystique, their myth - has its origins in the story of one man with a dictator's will and the cunning of a Machiavelli. 
 
Going back to the origins of "The Old Man", tracing his remarkable rise to prominence, and using sources which have hitherto remained silent, Richard Williams tells the story of a man who was one of the key figures of sport in the twentieth century, and whose influence over his sport is undiminished today, more than a decade after his death.

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