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Higgy Matches, Microphones and MS
Alastair Hignell

Format: Hardback - Released: 05/09/2011
Lovereading Price: £14.24 - Saving £4.75 (25%)

Winner of the Best Rugby Book at the British Sports Book Awards 2012. Alastair Hignell is renowned as a rugby international for England, a county cricketer and a much-loved broadcaster. Forced to retire from his playing careers at an early age due to injury, and then from his broadcasting career when his struggle with MS became too overwhelming, he has nonetheless lived life to the full. Higgy tells his inspirational story with warmth and humour - from growing up as a bright and very competitive young lad, on to his successful Cambridge university days where he was the first person to captain both the rugby and cricket first teams, through his playing careers against and alongside some of the all-time greats in both sports, and a prominent broadcasting career that took him around the world to cover some of the biggest sporting events and characters. All this success was brought into sharp relief by his diagnosis with MS, which eventually forced his retirement from broadcasting but also prompted him to become one of the leading campaigners for those suffering from the disease. Higgy's has been a tough journey, and his story is a fascinating example of strength and determination when faced with adversity. Appealing to a broad range of sports fans, this story is about setbacks and triumphs, about making the shift from the athletic struggles of sport to the struggle of performing everyday tasks. It's the genuine and emotional story of how a highly successful sportsman faced up to a devastating illness and became one of the most inspiring personalities of our age. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7551/Higgy-Matches-Microphones-and-MS-by-Alastair-Hignell.html

The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers
Andy Farrell

Format: Hardback - Released: 13/10/2011
Lovereading Price: £11.24 - Saving £3.75 (25%)

Winner of the Best Golf Book at the British Sports Book Awards 2012. What makes a great golfer? Is it innate talent, unstinting dedication, hard graft or inner strength? Can it be measured by championships won or prize money earned? Is the perfect technique more important than an engaging personality? Since the birth in 1860 of the Open Championship, every era of golf has produced its iconic great players, and here Andy Farrell selects his candidates for the top 100. From the early Scottish professionals who pioneered the game, such as Old Tom Morris and his son, Young Tommy, through such 20th century golden greats as Bobby Jones, Babe Zaharias, Arnold Palmer and Seve Ballesteros, to the modern era of Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, and the young pretenders of Yani Tseng and Rory McIlroy. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7549/The-100-Greatest-Ever-Golfers-by-Andy-Farrell.html

A Life Too Short The Tragedy of Robert Enke
Ronald Reng

Format: Hardback - Released: 29/09/2011
Lovereading Price: £12.74 - Saving £4.25 (25%)

Winner of the Best Football Book at the British Sports Book Awards 2012. 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. Viewed from the outside, Enke had it all. Here was a professional goalkeeper who had played for a string of Europe's top clubs including Jose Mourinho's Benfica and Louis Van Gaal's Barcelona. Enke was destined to be his country's first choice for years to come. But beneath the bright veneer of success lay a darker story. In A Life Too Short , award-winning writer Ronald Reng pieces together the puzzle of his lost friend's life. Reng brings into sharp relief the specific demands and fears faced by those who play top-level sport. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7547/A-Life-Too-Short-The-Tragedy-of-Robert-Enke-by-Ronald-Reng.html

Fred Trueman The Authorised Biography
Chris Waters

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/10/2011
Lovereading Price: £15.00 - Saving £5.00 (25%)

Winner of the Best Cricket Book at the British Sports Book Awards 2012. 'Fred Trueman was the first superstar of the game. He was a flamboyant, larger-than-life character' Ian Botham Fred Trueman was so much more than a cricketing legend. 'The greatest living Yorkshireman' according to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, he couldn't help excelling at everything he did, whether it was as a hostile fast bowler for Yorkshire and England, and the first man to take 300 Test wickets in a career, or as a fearlessly outspoken radio summariser for Test Match Special. He was famous for regularly spluttering that 'I don't know what's going off out there', as well as for the level of swearing he managed to incorporate into everyday speech. Beloved of cricket crowds who filled grounds to witness his belligerent way of playing the game, and nothing but trouble to the cricket authorities, 'Fiery Fred' was the epitome of a full-blooded Englishman. But as Chris Waters reveals in this first full biography, behind the charismatic, exuberant mask lay a far less self-assured man - terrified even that his new dog wouldn't like him - and whose version of his bucolic upbringing bore no relation to the gritty and impoverished South Yorkshire mining community where he actually grew up. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7546/Fred-Trueman-The-Authorised-Biography-by-Chris-Waters.html

Engage The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson
Paul Kimmage

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

Winner of the Best Biography/Autobiography at the British Sports Book Awards 2012. 'Engage!' was the last word Matt Hampson heard before dislocating his neck while in rugby training with other young England hopefuls. On a cold, grey, overcast day in 2005, the cream of young English rugby gathered at a Northampton training ground. Matt Hampson, 'Hambo' to his mates, was one of them. He had dreamt of playing rugby for England ever since he had picked up a rugby ball at school. His skill, conviction and dedication had brought him to the cusp of realising that dream, in an England U21 team that included Olly Morgan, Toby Flood, Ben Foden and James Haskell. But as the two sets of forwards engaged for a scrum on the training field, the scrum collapsed and Matt, who played tight-head prop, took the full force of two opposing sides. In that moment his life changed forever. Paul Kimmage went to visit Matt as he recuperated, and wrote a piece for the Sunday Times which won him his third successive SJA sports interviewer of the year award. They struck up a friendship and here, Paul tells Matt's whole story, in all its intimate detail. From the build-up to the dreadful day, to Matt's recuperation, to his struggle to adjust to normal life again, to his family and friends, to other tragic incidents on the rugby field, to the response of the RFU, this is a story of terrible sadness yet unadorned triumph and joy, of anger yet of reconciliation and peace ...of a boy who became a man. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7544/Engage-The-Fall-and-Rise-of-Matt-Hampson-by-Paul-Kimmage.html