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Find out moreRead more about your favourite sports or sportsmen and women with a unique perspective on their careers from the comfort of your sofa with this range of recommended books. Whether you’re a football fan, rugby reveller or fishing follower, we have a great read for you!
This small yet perfectly formed book covers personal thoughts, poetry, and the relationship we develop with dogs when roaming, hiking, and running through our wild places, in particular hills and mountains. Helen Mort discusses photography, historical records, research, and shares her experience of her own four-legged friends. She also takes a fascinating look at the dogs bred to be our companions in hills and mountains such as Huskies and St Bernards. Even though this is non-fiction, there is a beauty to the writing, with moments that really made me stop and think. The author is a poet and as she wanders through her own thoughts, pondering, considering, and analysing, she lets us into her soul. Never Leave the Dog Behind would make a lovely little gift, if you adore dogs and nature, then this is the book for you.
Based on interviews with witnesses, victims and their families, a gang leader and his associates, along with public servants, police and lawyers, crime reporter Ann Tornkvist’s Follow F***ing Orders is a no-holds-barred, exhaustively researched account of the brutal 2010 murders of professional Swedish footballer Eddie Moussa and his brother Yaacoub. Their murders sent the town of Södertälje reeling and precipitated Sweden’s biggest ever investigation into organised crime. As it recounts the personal tragedy, with all its complicated layers and twists, the book is shot-through with personal flair - Tornkvist has a detective‘s eye for detail, and a writer’s way with words. The result is a gripping, visual, visceral account of a mobster murder that gripped Sweden. The author’s deep involvement is clear through her forensic writing, and then there’s the fact that the book’s publication was threatened by threats on her life. This is true crime at its truest.
Paul Armstrong’s Why Are We Always Indoors? is a slam-dunk account of the COVID-19 pandemic from mid-March 2020 to 21st June that Boris Johnson devotees might want to avoid, but should definitely read. On the other hand, readers enraged by the likes of PPE shortages, Dominic Cummings’s Barnard Castle road-trip eye test, and track and trace bungles will find a kindred spirit in Armstrong. It certainly packs potent personal and political punch. This London lockdown diary began life “as a way of recording daily reflections on the most bizarre football close-season ever known, and to fill the long hours of lockdown” but, “as events beyond our four walls grew darker, so the focus drifted from whimsical musings on football, TV and music to a growing unease with how a dreadful pandemic was being handled.” As so much has shifted, flipped and flopped since the author began keeping this journal, reading his account of the experience some seven months later is a vital reminder of what we’ve been through collectively. Alongside prescient reactions to governmental decisions, the author recounts experiences many of us will relate to - being horrified by reports from Italy. Taking daily walks that felt “like the pre-titles sequence in a zombie apocalypse movie”. Clapping for carers. The existential strangeness of having to psyche ourselves up to go to the shop. Fans of the author’s memoir Why Are We Always on Last? will also love the football and music musings and anecdotes. While right now (October 2020), no one knows how or when the pandemic will end, Why Are We Always Indoors? ends on a fittingly bittersweet note, pointing out that while we don’t know “whether we’ll taste the true freedom we once knew ever again”, we can “take comfort where we can and hope for happier times. We know there’s trouble ahead but, as Irving Berlin said, ‘While there’s music and moonlight and love and romance. Let’s face the music and dance.’ And, for now at least, there’s football, too.”
Follow Stig as he roams from the stifling heat of the Dakar rally to the redneck heartland of a NASCAR track, or from the nightime drama or Le Mans to the mud-soaked stands of Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Along the way you'll also find Clarkson, Hammond and May as they indulge in a spot of home-made motorhome racing or Roman rallying, middle-eastern style. The Where's Stig books have taken Top Gear fans by storm - and his latest voyage is the most action packed yet!
Have you ever wanted to know what really happens when teams go on tour? Drawing on his extensive experience of touring, former international and acclaimed pundit Brian Moore tells you all you need ever know, with this in-depth but light-hearted expose, covering every level of the sport, from junior club rugby right up to the British Lions. With stories of bikini-clad forwards and Moore's own escapades, many of rugby's best-known names of recent years are featured, and no element of life on tour is left untouched. As they go, readers will learn how to survive the worst room-mates in the world, how to cope with the long hours of travel, and how to get the best room in the hotel. They will learn how the professionals do it - or at least used to - and how their would-be amateur counterparts try to do it; both having a blast along the way. Anyone who has ever gone away with a group of mates - male or female, sporting or not - will recognise similar situations and immediately identify with the book.
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2010. In Who Ate All the Pies?, the gonzo sports journalist explores and celebrates the things we love about the whole culture of the game, tries to explain how we got to where we are now and speculates where we the game is headed.
Now fully updated, recording the “Wiggo” triumph of last year and providing a wealth of detail about the race, its location, history and participants. Nick Brownlee covers the Heroes and the Villains of the race, those who’ve strived against all the odds and those that cheated their way to the Yellow Jersey. Lots of entertaining trivia and records round out this entertaining and all-round tour of the Tour. Like for Like Reading French Revolution: Cycling the Tour de France, Tim Moore A Race for Madmen: The Extraordinary History of the Tour de France, Chris Sidwell
If you're a football fan and you're on Twitter, you probably follow @USASoccerGuy. His account is that rare thing - a genuinely funny Twitter account that has actually stayed funny, and he has a huge number of followers. His persona is that of an American soccer pundit with a very sketchy knowledge of the British game - live-tweeting along with matches on the telly, he talks in ridiculous ill-informed Americanisms and his best-loved catchphrases include 'GOALSHOT!', 'HAND DENIAL!' and 'COMPLETION WHISTLE!' . Particularly hilarious are his names for UK football teams (which he sells as T-shirts too) - including the Sunderland Red Stripers, Chelsea Blue Lions and Asstown Vanilla. In this exciting and important new volume, USA Soccer Guy brings you his unique take on the 25 most awesome moments in football history. Including Eric Cantona's classic kung fu kick in 1995, Maradona's Hand Felony of God in 1986 and David Beckham going to LA Galaxy, it's hilarious football fun for fans everywhere.
Jack Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports - one that had always been the preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if colour did not exist.
October 2017 Non-Fiction Book of the Month Published a few days before the start of the 3rd Invictus Games in Toronto where around 550 competitors – all “wounded warriors” will be competing. This is their story told by some of those who’ve taken part in the games. As the author Boris Starling says, Invictus is different to the Paralympic games, firstly those injured in both mind and body can take part, they have a military background and there is a greater emphasis on just being there and doing your best. It highlights just what these men and women have been through, their support - both medical and personal and what the games mean to them. ~ Sue Baker Like for Like Reading The True Story of Great Britain’s Paralympic Heroes by Cathy Wood A Heavy Reckoning: War, Medicine and Survival in Afghanistan and Beyond by Emily Mayhew
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2010. From an amateur footballer working on a bomb disposal unit in Liverpool, to celebrated Manchester City goalkeeper adored by thousands, Catrine Clay charts Trautmann's conversion from Hitler Youth star to all-England football hero, mirroring Europe's own journey through the horrors of war to a fragile post-war peace.
Winner of the Best Biography category of the British Sports Book Awards 2011. Shortlisted for the Best Football Book and Best Publicity Campaign categories of the British Sports Book Awards 2011. Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2010.From an amateur footballer working on a bomb disposal unit in Liverpool, to celebrated Manchester City goalkeeper adored by thousands, Catrine Clay charts Trautmann's conversion from Hitler Youth star to all-England football hero, mirroring Europe's own journey through the horrors of war to a fragile post-war peace.
A 2012 World Book Night selection. A true testament to the human will and spirit. Joe Simpson and his climbing partner Simon Yates both showed great courage and strength after Simpson fell and broke his leg descending Siula Grande but it is Simpson’s harrowing account of what happened to him and how against all the odds he got himself back to base camp that will leave the reader in awe and complete admiration. An intense and totally engrossing read. Listen to an audio extract by clicking on the orange arrow below. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson by Random House Audiobooks
Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017 published by cycling specialist Raph Editions What the judges said: 'gives fresh insight into the life of trailblazer Tom Simpson, the first Briton to wear the Tour de France's yellow jersey, 50 years after his tragic death'. In the foreword to the title, Sir Bradley Wiggins said: "As a British cyclist, your identity is massively informed by him, so it goes without saying that he was instrumental in my 2012 Tour de France victory." Tom Simpson is British cycling's greatest icon. Fifty years after he conquered the continental sporting scene, he still captivates people around the world. After his dramatic death on Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France, amphetamines and alcohol were found in his system, a fact which often dwarfs his pioneering achievements. The other shortlist titles the Simpson book beat were:- The Greatest Combeack: From Genocide to Football Glory by David Bolchover (Biteback Publishing) Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Simon & Schuster) Quiet Genius: Bob Paisley, British Football's Greatest Manager by Ian Herbert (Bloomsbury Sport, Bloombsury) Swell: A Waterbiography by Jenny Landreth (Bloomsbury Sport, Bloomsbury) Centaur by Declan Murphy and Ami Rao (Doubleday, Transworld) Breaking Ground: Art, Archaelogy and Mythology edited by Neville Gabie, Alan Ward and Jason Wood (Axis Projects) Last year the prize was won by Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Corsair)
How this man has had the time to fit in all the things he has done in his life is quite amazing and here we have another of his adventures. Along with being the original drummer in Genesis, getting a pilot’s license, learning to shear sheep, joining a circus and much, much more Chris also became skipper of a Cornish Crabber sailing to the Greek Islands with no experience at sailing whatsoever. This is his story of the following months learning as he went and not always making the best decisions. One thing Chris Stewart does do is make you believe anything is possible, you just have to give it a go!
How this man has had the time to fit in all the things he has done in his life is quite amazing and here we have another of his adventures. Along with being the original drummer in Genesis, getting a pilot’s license, learning to shear sheep, joining a circus and much, much more Chris also became skipper of a Cornish Crabber sailing to the Greek Islands with no experience at sailing whatsoever. This is his story of the following months learning as he went and not always making the best decisions. One thing Chris Stewart does do is make you believe anything is possible, you just have to give it a go!
They are role models, heroes, spokespeople for major brands, they get millions in sponsorship, their personal lives are plastered over the gossip columns, they are at the top of their professions and love them or hate them, they’re all over our newspapers, TVs, PCs and radios. This section has everything the armchair enthusiast could wish for. Myth-busting biographies (Beware of the Dog by Brian Moore), detailed histories (A History of Football in 100 Objects by Gavin Mortimer), personal accounts of huge moments (Black White & Gold by Kelly Holmes), and atmospheric tributes to beloved games (A Last English Summer by Duncan Hamilton. This is the inside track on the lives, loves, losses and victories of some of the world’s most physically talented people, and the games they love to play.
Get into your favourite armchair, plump up the cushions, have a nice cup of tea and dive in. Just make sure you don’t pull a muscle!