A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy and is known as @agatharoza on Wattpad.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children. Angelica is also the author of Hunt A Killer, a PERFECT SCORE novel, under the pen name A.M. Ellis, which she wrote as an IP for Scholastic in the US.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, specialising in terrorism and counter-insurgency. He is the author and editor of several books, including Defending the Realm: The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars Since 1945, and has lectured all over the world on aspects of national and international security. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Aaron Edwards

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Packie Bonner

Irish national hero, a Celtic great and their most-capped player, Patrick 'Packie' Bonner is a goalkeeping legend. 
 
He was Jock Stein's last signing for the club when he left his native Donegal for the city of Glasgow in 1978, where Packie evolved from being a shy, homesick teenager into a confident, world-class talent and first-choice goalkeeper. Billy McNeill handed him a debut on St Patrick's Day in 1979, and Packie went on to provide the last line of defence a record 641 times for the club. A seasoned Irish internationalist, Packie was a vital component in the most-celebrated Irish national squad ever, playing in a golden era under the tutelage of the inimitable Jack Charlton. 
 
In The Last Line, Packie shares stories from his incredible career, including his greatest moment in front of a global audience during the Italia '90 World Cup tournament when he became the penalty shoot-out hero of the nation by saving a spot-kick that took the Irish to the quarter-finals stage in their very first World Cup adventure. 
 
It was an iconic moment that would change his life forever not least because, whilst in Italy, he, along with his teammates, had an audience with another goalkeeper, Pope John Paul II. 
 
Throughout his 80 cap international career, he competed against the very best in the world. Men such as Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten, Gheorghe Hagi, Roberto Baggio and Gary Lineker came to know the name Packie Bonner. Equally, in his glittering Celtic career that included the winning of four Scottish League titles, three Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup, Packie Bonner played alongside some great Celtic names like Tommy Burns, Paul McStay, and Murdo Macleod. 
Along the way, Packie had to endure a career-threatening back injury, as well as the devastation of a routine save going wrong and costing a goal on the world stage against Holland in 1994, ultimately leading to elimination from the World Cup in America. 
 
More than just the telling of trophies, titles and triumphs, this is the story of a Celtic legend and a true great of Irish International football.

The Last Line: My Autobiography

Steve Davis

Steve Davis was just a rookie from Plumstead, south London, learning how to play from an old book his snooker-obsessed father had given him, when an encounter with Barry Hearn changed his life forever. With his backing, Steve began touring the country in a clapped-out car as an amateur. Challenging established professionals and winning titles, supported by his loyal following the Romford Roar, it wasn’t long before he progressed to the world’s stage. 
 
By the eighties, Steve had helped transform a previously shady sport into a national obsession. He and a cast of legends such as Ray Reardon, Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins, with other young guns like Jimmy White, were doing silent battle in front of huge audiences. Tens of millions of viewers would witness the nail-biting conclusions of his world championship finals; this was snooker’s golden era. 
 
The man behind the ‘boring’ tag has always been the sport’s smartest and sharpest man. With his cool, obsessive approach, Steve rewrote the rule book and became untouchably the best player in the world and the best paid sportsman in the country. Interesting lays it all bare: what it was like to win in those pressure-cooker situations; how to cope at the top, when everyone wants you to lose; and how you deal with the moment when a man comes along who is finally better than you. This is a memoir that closely evokes the smoke-filled atmosphere of those arenas, the intrigue behind the scenes and the personal psychology and sacrifice that is required to stay at the top of such an exacting sport.

Interesting

My Autobiography

Daniel Bryan

YES! YES! YES! Daniel Bryan is the real deal. Everyone’s favorite underdog, he’s proven to the world and to all of WWE that looks can be deceiving. Just ask everyone who’s ever underestimated him…right before he went out and whipped the WWE Universe into a frenzy. 
 
This is Bryan’s behind-the-scenes story told for the first time ever — from his beginnings as a child wanting to wrestle to his ten years on the circuit before finally making it in WWE. When his "YES!" chant becomes a full-fledged movement, his career skyrockets. This book chronicles all the hard work, values, influences, unique life choices and more leading to his watershed week at WrestleMania 30. You won’t want to miss it. Yes! We’re sure about this.

Yes!

My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania

Maarten Meijer

So who is Louis van Gaal? An inflexible ex-PE teacher who only knows how to act like a dictator or a footballing visionary that has made him one of the greatest ever European managers? 
 
 Wherever he has gone, Van Gaal has been accused of being a domineering disciplinarian and a control freak. He is certainly, by his own admission, a man who leaves nothing to chance. A disciple in the 1970s of Rinus Michels’ Total Football philosophy, he is a fascinating contradiction – an ultra-individualist utterly devoted to the collective effort. He believes in the team over the individual, in always having a plan and a team prepared to follow it. Van Gaal led the young Ajax team he moulded to Champions League glory in 1995, went on to win titles across Europe with Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich and served two stints as national coach of Holland. It is a career that has never been short on colour and drama – from fallouts with players to rants at the media wherever he has managed. 
 
Dutch football commentator Maarten Meijer’s has written the definitive biography of van Gaal – both the man and his methods. It offers the best psychological insight so far – from his earliest roots to his greatest triumphs – into the man given the task of returning the glory days to Manchester United. 
 
**New chapter on Louis van Gaal's first season with Manchester United**

Louis van Gaal

The Biography

Harry Redknapp

‘When a man walks on to a pitch there’s always a chance something magic can happen, that’s what keeps us coming back…’ 
 
In A Man Walks On To a Pitch, Harry shares a lifetime’s experience of obsessing over football, during which he has seen it all first hand – the good, the bad and the unbelievable. Harry started in an age where players were ordinary blokes who might live on the same street as you and earn a similar wage. Now he manages in an era of player power, multi-million pound wages and teams assembled from around the globe. 
 
As he shares stories of some of the legends and journeymen he played, coached, argued and drank with, Harry picks a team for each decade from the 1950s to the present. He gets to the heart of what was right and wrong with each era and explores the changes in the game from lifestyle to tactics. He weaves his choices together with unforgettable tales from the training pitches, boot rooms and card schools. 
 
There are tales of the untutored genius of Duncan Edwards and Tom Finney, legendary tough Scots like Bobby Collins, Dave Mackay and Billy Bremner, the world-beaters of 1966, unpredictable one-off wizards from Sir Stanley Matthews to Matt Le Tissier, natural-born goalscorers from Greaves to Dalglish and the greatest foreign players to grace our game from Trautmann to Bergkamp. It is one of the best informal histories of the British game you’ll ever read.

A Man Walks On To a Pitch

Stories from a Life in Football

Gareth Thomas

**WINNER British Sports Book Awards SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR** 
 
**Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award** 
 
Gareth Thomas had it all. He was a national hero, a sporting icon. He was a leader of men, captain of Wales and the British Lions. To him, rugby was an expression of cultural identity, a sacred code. It was no mere ball game. It gave him everything, except the freedom to be himself. 
 
This is the story of a man with a secret that was slowly killing him. Something that might devastate not only his own life but the lives of his wife, family, friends and teammates. The only place where he could find any refuge from the pain and guilt of the lie he was living was on the pitch, playing the sport he loved. But all his success didn’t make the strain of hiding who he really was go away. His fear that telling the truth about his sexuality would lose him everything he loved almost sent him over the edge. 
 
The deceit ended when Gareth became the world’s most prominent athlete to come out as a gay man. His gesture has strengthened strangers, and given him a fresh perspective. Gareth’s inspiring and moving story transcends the world of sport to tell a universal truth about feeling like an outsider, and facing up to who you really are.

Proud

Carl Froch

When Carl Froch defeated George Groves in their Wembley Stadium re-match in front of 80,000 fans, it went down as the biggest fight in British boxing history, cementing Carl’s place as our greatest boxer – a pure warrior who has never accepted the easy way. 
 
Carl grew up a tough kid on a Nottingham estate, where boxing helped to keep him out of trouble. His incredible natural ability soon led to a world amateur medal before he turned pro and embarked on a long journey with his mentor and corner man Rob McCracken. 
 
Carl’s career has always been defined by taking on the odds with blisteringly tough fights. He was never scared to fight in someone else’s backyard and always faced the hardest opponents to prove himself – Jean Pascal, Arthur Abraham, Andre Ward, Lucien Bute and his incredible last round knock-out of Jermain Taylor. 
 
But of course he will always be remembered for his showdowns with the great Dane Mikkel Kessler and then George Groves, avenging his initial points defeat by Kessler and finishing Groves for a second time with one of the greatest punches in British boxing history. 
 
Froch was first a local and now a national hero and here he tells the story of how he fought his way through sheer guts and determination to the summit of the boxing world. 
 
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE COBRA - NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED

Froch

James Bannon

'Of course I'm a f**king hooligan, you pr**k. I am a hooligan...there I've said it...I'm a hooligan. And, do you know why? Because that's my f**king job.' 
 
In 1995, a film called I.D., about an ambitious young copper who was sent undercover to track down the ‘generals’ of a football hooligan gang, achieved cult status for its sheer brutality and unsettling insight into the dark and often bloody side of the so-called beautiful game. 
 
The film was so shocking it was hard to believe the mindless events that took place could ever happen in the real world. Well, believe it now... 
 
Almost twenty years on, the man behind the film has explosively revealed that the script was largely a true story. That man, James Bannon, was the ambitious undercover cop. The football club was Millwall F.C. and the gang that he infiltrated was The Bushwackers, among the most brutal and fearless in English football. 
 
In Running with the Firm, Bannon shares his intense and dangerous journey into the underworld of football hooliganism where sickening levels of violence prevail over anything else. He introduces you to the hardest thugs from football’s most notorious gangs, tells all about the secret and almost comical police operations that were meant to bring them down, and, how once you’re on the inside, getting out from the mob proves to be the biggest mission of all. 
 
A disturbing but compelling read, this is the book that proves fact really is stranger than fiction.

Running with the Firm

The Sunday Times no.1 bestselling memoir from Harry Redknapp 
 
‘From kicking a ball as a kid under the street lamps of Poplar and standing on Highbury's North Bank with my dad, to my first game at West Ham, I was born head over heels in love with football. It saved me, and 50 years on that hasn't changed one bit - I'd be lost without it…’ 
 
Harry is the manager who has seen it all - from a dismal 70s Portakabin at Oxford City and training pitches with trees in the middle to the unbeatable highs of the Premiership, lifting the FA Cup and taking on Real Madrid in the Champions League. With his much loved, no-nonsense delivery, Harry brings us a story filled with passion and humour that takes you right inside every drama of his career. 
 
Harry finally tells the full story of all the controversial ups and downs - the pain and heartache of his court case, the England job, his love for Bobby Moore, his adventures at Portsmouth with Milan Mandaric, the Southampton debacle, Tottenham and Daniel Levy, and not forgetting his years at West Ham or the challenges at his current club QPR. 
 
It’s the epic journey of one of the great managers and, along the way, the story of the British game itself over the last five decades. In an era now dominated by foreign coaches Harry is the last of an old-fashioned breed of English football man - one who has managed to move with the times and always come out fighting.

Always Managing

Mark Cavendish

The hottest sprinter in the world - Telegraph 
 
Mark Cavendish is the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France's green jersey, the first to wear the iconic rainbow jersey in almost 50 years and our only ever rider to capture the Giro d'Italia points title. He is the most prolific sprinter in the Tour's history, and - according to L'Equipe - the best sprinter of all time. But smashing records and racking up victories means whole new levels of fame: and this has come at a price. 
 
Living in the goldfish bowl, he has come under fire for his bombastic riding style and been portrayed as everything from an outlaw to a psychopath. Joining Sky in 2012, Cav soon found his own sprint interests to be incompatible with the team's other goals, while the expectations of a nation made his London Olympic failure hard to take. 
 
In At Speed Cav takes you through the highs and lows of it all in intimate detail. This is a take-no-prisoners account of life at the pinnacle of his sport, and learning how to survive in the fast lane, both on and off the bike.

At Speed

Charly Wegelius

**Winner - Sweetspot Cycling Book of the Year** 
 
For 11 years I was a professional cyclist, competing in the hardest and greatest races on Earth. I was in demand from the world’s best teams, a well-paid elite athlete. But I never won a race. I was the hired help. 
 
When my mum dropped me off in a small French town aged 17, I was full of determination to be a professional cyclist, but I was completely green. I went from mowing the team manager’s lawn to winning every amateur race I entered. Then I turned pro and realised I hated the responsibility and pressure of chasing victory. And that’s when I became a domestique. 
 
I learned to take that hurt and give it everything I had to give, all for someone else’s win. When the order came in to ride I pushed out with the hardest rhythm I could, dragging the group faster and faster, until my whole body screamed with pain. There were times I rode myself to a standstill, clutching the barrier metres from the line, as the lead group shot past. But that’s what made me a so good at my job. 
 
As my career took off, I started looking at the fans lining the route, cheering us like heroes. The passion for cycling oozed off them, but they couldn’t know what it was really like. They didn’t see the terrible hotels, the crazy egos or all the shit that goes with great expectations. Well, this is how it is…

Domestique

The Real-life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro

Robert Dineen

Reg Harris, whose statue overlooks the Manchester Velodrome, is the legend who all track cyclists want to emulate. He was a poor, working-class boy born in the Depression who escaped the Lancashire mills to utterly dominate his sport. He triumphed as world champion an incredible 
five times between 1947 and 1954 and performed medal-winning heroics at the London Olympics. 
 
At his peak he was the most adored sportsman in the country attracting huge crowds, sponsorship, and the company of the rich and famous. But, fiercely driven and ruthlessly single-minded, Harris had a dark side. His was a sensational life fuelled by an insatiable need for money, celebrity, fast cars and beautiful women that constantly threatened to destroy him. 
 
Following an exhaustive investigation, Robert Dineen has uncovered an epic sporting rise and fall – a story more astounding than anyone had known.

Reg Harris

The rise and fall of Britain's greatest cyclist

Sugar Ray Leonard

'To be legendary you got to have heart... Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest' Muhammad Ali 
 
SUGAR RAY LEONARD was one of the greatest boxers ever. An artist and a showman he was always willing to take the difficult fight: his gruelling encounters with Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler have become legendary. 
 
Ray's autobiography takes you into the ring - with the mind games, brutality and euphroia. But, outside of the ring, Ray's biggest opponent was himself. From early domestic violence and sexual abuse to a blur of fame, sex, greed, drink and drug addiction at the height of his career that cost him so much, The Big Fight is a remarkable portrait of the rise, fall and final redeption of a true fighter in every sense.

The Big Fight

My Story

Daniel Friebe

'The whole point of a race is to find a winner... I chose to race, so I chose to win.' 
 
For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, cyclist Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories - including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races - he amassed in his own right. So dominant had Merckx become by 1973 that he was ordered to stay away from the Tour for the good of the event. 
 
Stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France perfectly illustrates his untouchable brilliance. Already wearing the yellow jersey on the col du Tourmalet, the Tour's most famous peak, Merckx powered clear and rode the last 140 kilometres to the finish-line in jaw-dropping solitude, eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. 
 
Merckx's era has been called cycling's Golden Age.It was full of memorable characters who, at any other time, would all have gone on to become legends. Yet Merckx's phenomenal career overshadowed them all. How did he achieve such incredible success? And how did his rivals really feel about him? Merckx failed drug tests three times in his career - were they really stitch ups as he claimed? And what of the crash at a track meet in Blois, France that killed Merckx's pacer Fernand Wambst, which Merckx claimed deeply affected him psychologically and physically? Or the attack by a spectator in 1975? 
 
Despite his unique achievements, we know little about the Cannibal beyond his victories. This will be the first comprehensive biography of Merckx in English, and will finally expose the truth behind this legendary man.

Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal

Sid Waddell

'I had not lived in the former pit village of Lynemouth since 1961 but the winding road north from Newcastle will always be the same nostalgic highway, each twist charged with vivid memories and powerful emotions...' 
 
So begins a story full of wonderful humour, emotional candour and hardy tales of tough times - a quietly epic family saga set amid the pit villages of the North East . It stretches from the 1920s, before Sid's parents had even met, to the final closing of the mine and his mother's death in 1999. 
 
Sid paints a picture of a colourful, tight knit community full of good times and hard work, god-fearing women and hard-drinking men. Always dominating the skyline is Auld Betty, the pit head that took the men away each day and, with a prayer, brought them back each evening. Amongst the unforgettable cast of his extended family and friends, we follow the Waddells' attempts to stay afloat and provide a better future and possible escape for youngsters like Sid.

The Road Back Home

A Northern Childhood

Boy Racer steps behind the scenes of the Tour de France. It unmasks the exotic, contradictory, hysterical and brutal world of professional cycling from the compellingly candid viewpoint of someone right in the thick of it. 
 
Written off as 'fat' and 'useless' in his youth, Mark Cavendish is now one of cycling's brightest stars and one of Britain's greatest ever cyclists. Some have called him cocky, but to anyone who doesn't like his style, Mark will simply shrug his shoulders and reply, 'I know I'm good. There's no point lying about it.' 
 
Peers say that they have never seen anyone with Cavendish's hunger for success and while this fearlessness - both in the saddle and on the record - has at times led to controversy, it has also earned him the respect of ever more fans. 
 
In Boy Racer we follow him through the mayhem of the Tour de France in a page-turning journey of pure exhilaration.

Boy Racer

Don Shaw

Clough's War is the story of his epic ascent and decline at Derby County, a club he took in a few short years from nowhere to the top English football and teetering on greatness in Europe, before the whole dream came tumbling down in the national spotlight with his acrimonious resignation in 1973. It is the story of his rise to national fame, his almost messianic adoration at Derby and his jealous political tussle with the chairman Sam Longson and the ultimate fall of Clough's unchecked power. Award-winning script writer and lifelong Rams fan Don Shaw, was the man who, at Clough's behest, ran the campaign to keep Clough at Derby and who found himself almost in the spotlight as much as the great man himself. It is a tale dramatised with all the power of Greek tragedy and the Machiavellian intrigue of All The President's Men, while shedding new light on the Clough legend like no other book before it.

Clough's War

Sandy Balfour

What I Love About Cricket is the story of a summer when a 'master' cricket obsessive teaches his novice 'pupil' the wisdom of the game. Sandy Balfour is cast as the supposed master and his sixteen-year-old daughter's new boyfriend - the skateboarding boy wonder - is the reluctant pupil. 
 
This beginner's guide to the infuriatingly perverse game of cricket is a love letter addressed both to 
those who utterly fail to understand it and to those who need reminding why they fell in love in 
the first place. What unfolds is wonderfully observed, very funny and as much about fathers 
and daughters, love and life, as it is about cricket.

What I Love About Cricket

One Man's Vain Attempt to Explain Cricket to a Teenager who Couldn't Give a Toss

Bret Hart

'Amazingly detailed and meticulously crafted ... Hitman will stand the test of time as one of the definitive wrestling biographies' Publishers Weekly 
 
'Bret Hart still makes me believe that wrestling is good' Hulk Hogan 
 
'Packed with drugs, sex, vicious family in-fighting and tales of life on the road ... Hart names names and lays it all bare in his own words' Globe and Mail 
 
A story of death, sex, betrayal and revenge; sweat, steroids and duplicity - wrestler Bret Hart lifts the lid on the wacky, mythic, secretive word of pro wrestling in this epic tell-all.

Hitman

My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling

Ian Rush

In 2006, Liverpool fans voted Ian Rush among the top three all-time greatest players in the history of the club. Taking his place alongside Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard, he surpassed football legends such as Fowler, Keegan, Owen, Smith, Carragher and Hansen. Ian Rush is quite simply Liverpool's greatest goalscorer and, along with Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law, one of the finest natural penalty-box predators the game has ever seen. 
 
This is the story of a rough-edged Welsh teenager thrust into the ranks of an already great side, who didn't feel up to it, but who learned how to grow as a player and a man until he became the most devastating finisher in English football. Rush's story is bursting with honesty and insight, emotional turmoil and tragedy, and hilarious tales and asides. It is a near-mythical tale of triumph and tragedy. Of an era when Liverpool FC became nigh on invincible, made the League title their own, and rode the highs of European and FA Cup Finals alongside the devastating tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough. The drama of Rush's time at Liverpool during the 80s - the decade that defined the club more than any other - is thrillingly captured in this autobiography, which takes you into the thick of the action, as well as offering a frank and insightful analysis of football today.

Rush

The Autobiography

John Daniell

John Daniell is a rubgy mercenary. A brutal word for an often brutal game. 
 
In 1996, when Rugby Union turned professional, John emigrated to France where he played for a decade in top competitions. His team ricocheted between fear and ecstasy, as they battled to save the club from relegation and their careers from the scrap heap. 
 
Now he lifts the lid on the dark world of the journeyman player, where losing a home game is considered a crime, coaches and club owners will do anything to win, and agents ruthlessly manipulate players. 
 
His compelling confessions are both shocking and funny, taking you behind the scenes, onto the field and into the very heart of the scrum.

Confessions of a Rugby Mercenary

Alexander Roy

On his deathbed, Alex Roy's father dropped tantalizing hints about the notorious Cannonball Run of the 1970s, the utterly illegal high-speed non-stop races from New York to LA. Inspired by his father's dying words, and against the advice of his friends, Roy enters this mysterious world - trying both to find himself, and to locate 'The Driver' - the anonymous organizer of the world's ultimate car race. 
 
In this riveting memoir, Roy straps you into his highly modified BMW M5, takes you on a terrifying 120 mph lap of Manhattan, then tackles the Gumball 3000 and the Bullrun - the two most infamous road rallies in the world. His bogus Polizei Autobahn Interceptor sticks out among the Lamborghinis and Ferraris driven by millionaire playboys, software moguls, Arab princes, movie stars, leggy Czech supermodels, gearheads, and tech whizzes. Armed with myriad radar detectors, laser jammers and police scanners, and his trunk crammed with a variety of fake uniforms, the obsessively prepared Roy evades arrest at almost every turn, wreaking havoc on his fiercest rivals and gaining the admiration of police forces around the globe. 
 
Filled with insane driving and Roy's quixotic quest to win both for his late father and himself, The Driver is the tale of one man's insatiable drive beyond life in the fast lane.

The Driver

True Life Adventures of an Underground Road Racer

Bellies and Bullseyes is simply the greatest account there will ever be about the sport of darts - as told by one of its most legendary characters - Sid Waddell. It mixes Sid's own personal journey from the coalfields of the North East with the entire history of the sport. What is revealed is a hilarious yet epic Darts Babylon, covering every significant event and every character to walk the oche from Eric 'The Crafty Cockney' Bristow to Phil 'The Power' Taylor. 
 
In words as ripe as his commentaries, Sid brings an authentic whiff of fags, hard drink, hot tungsten and moist polyester to the whole cabaret. Sid has been friend and confidante to most of darts' stars over the years as well as being instrumental in the game's progress himself. Nobody is equipped to tell the story quite like he is. 
 
From the early days of hustling in bars and the 1960s money-race pub competitions that spawned the likes of John Lowe and Leighton Rees, to ITV's brilliantly daft The Indoor League and the glory days of BBC's coverage; from the bling of Bobby George and the belly of Jocky Wilson to the awesome professionalism of Phil Taylor; from smoky Northern working men's clubs to the Houses of Parliament; this is the complete, incredible story of darts.

Bellies and Bullseyes

The Outrageous True Story of Darts

Ian Botham

Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game's one true living legend and his story both on and off the pitch reads like a Boy's Own rollercoaster ride. 
 
Born with a natural genius for cricket, Botham began breaking records with bat and ball from a young age and soon became the man English cricket expected most from. After a troubled period as England's captain, Botham rose once again to become a national hero with his display in the Miracle Ashes of 1981. But, with his confrontational nature and wild streak, he began regularly making the wrong kind of headlines. With accusations of drink and drugs, affairs and ball-tampering, he became hounded by the tabloid pack, never sure whether they wanted him to triumph or implode. Now a Knight and just as famous for his tireless charity work, Beefy gives us the definitive story of his never-dull life and times in his own no-nonsense words.

Head On - Ian Botham: The Autobiography

Michael Simkins

A fat boy with a passion for sweets and a loathing for games, the young Michael Simkins finds in cricket a sport where size doesn't necessarily matter and a full-blown obsession is born. Now in middle-age, he still harbours the somewhat deluded belief that the England middle-order might usefully benefit from his hard-earned skills. From impromptu Test series played with his dad in the family sweetshop through to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates, Fatty Batter is the bestselling and hilarious story of one man's life lived through cricket.

Fatty Batter

How cricket saved my life (then ruined it)

Paddy Agnew

When journalist Paddy Agnew and his girlfriend Dympna touched down in Rome in 1985 in search of adventure, sunshine and the soul of Italian football (well, Paddy was looking for that), they were travelling into the uncharted terrain of a country they did not know and a language they did not speak. 
 
It soon became clear that neither Italy nor Italian football would be boring. In that first week in Italy, Michel Platini and Juventus won the Intercontinental Cup, whilst just days later the PLO killed 13 people in a random shooting at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Paddy covered both stories. The coming years saw the rise of TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, as he became owner of AC Milan and then Prime Minister of Italy, naming his political party 'Forza Italia' after a football chant. In that same period, Argentine Diego Maradona became the uncrowned King of Naples, leading Napoli to a first ever Scudetto title in 1987, notwithstanding a hectic, Hollywood-esque lifestyle that mixed footballing genius with off-the-field excess. 
 
Forza Italia is a fascinating tale of inspired players, skilled coaches, rich tycoons, glitzy media coverage, Mafia corruption, allegations of drug taking and fan power - culminating in the 2006 World Cup victory that delighted a nation and a match-fixing scandal that shocked the world. It is also a personalised reflection on the consistent and continuing excellence of Italian football throughout a period of huge social, political and economic upheaval, offering a unique insight into a society where football has always been much more than just a game.

Forza Italia

The Fall and Rise of Italian Football

Greg Norman

Greg Norman (known universally as the Great White Shark for his rugged blonde Aussie looks) will go down in golfing history as one of the greatest of all time - the finest performer to grace a golf course between the golden era of Jack Nicklaus and the modern era of Tiger Woods. Before Woods, Greg had occupied the Official World No. 1 Rankings far longer than any other player in the modern game, with an incredible 331 weeks at the top. 
 
Greg sensationally won The Open Championship twice, in 1986 and 1993, has 20 PGA and European Tour wins to his name and 29 top ten finishes in majors. But despite such huge success, he is perhaps best loved as the nearly man in so many other big tournaments: particularly The Masters, US Open, and PGA Championship. He was equally a victim of his own bad luck, and good luck on the part of his fellow golfers (losing a near-certain PGA Championship win in 1986 after Bob Tway holed a bunker shot, and losing The Masters the following year in a playoff by an even more miraculous 45-yard chip shot from Larry Mize), and a couple of infamous 'chokes' where Norman's wobble-prone putting got the better of him. 
 
But it's not just a story of the highs and lows of a golfing legend either. Greg Norman has made a huge success in business since leaving the top rank of golf, with an empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and he offers the motivational truths that have driven him to win on both the fairway and beyond. 
 
Using his familiar charm and humour, Greg's own book will be an honest look at the long and arduous path to success - a journey littered with hard work, hard decisions, knowing when to trust your instincts, handling failure, psychological doubts, finding self-belief and learning from mistakes - an inspiration to any sportsman.

The Way of the Shark

Kevin Pietersen

Described by the media as 'the David Beckham of cricket', Kevin has become the poster boy for English cricket. But he is also in possession of a prodigious talent - fearless, bold and with unflappable nerves. His unique batting style has produced hundreds of runs and many outstanding innings, culminating in his extraordinary triumph at the 2005 Ashes. Yet with the highs, come the lows, and he gives his version of events during the 2006/07 Ashes when England were defeated by Australia. 
 
Crossing the Boundary recounts Kevin's remarkable journey so far - from growing up in his native South Africa and the opposition he faced from the national cricket board; his move to England and burgeoning career at Hampshire to winning a place on the England team. It provides a rare insight into the mind of an international cricketer, on and off the pitch. Reflecting his youthful charisma and his bullish confidence, this is a sporting memoir like no other. 
 
Full of personal anecdotes and insight from numerous sporting legends such as Shane Warne, Ian Botham, and Nasser Hussain, this is the riveting story of one of the most significant cricketers of our time.

Crossing the Boundary

Barney Ronay

Fast approaching 30, Barney Ronay is a Sunday League left back with some tough choices to make. Is staying in with his girlfriend and Gardeners' World on a Friday night doing much for his match fitness? Would he be better off back with his best mate Dan in the bachelor pad of pizza boxes, lager and Playstation into the early hours? And at their age can they still afford to spend weekends in their desperate struggle to keep Bolingbroke Athletic afloat? Shouldn't they be growing up, getting married, spending their Sundays at Homebase? 
 
This is the hilarious story of a team in early mid-life crisis, hiding from responsibility in the strange masochism at the ugly end of the beautiful game - the smell of Deep Heat, naked fat men, hangovers and the eternal belief that next week you might just rediscover your first touch.

Any Chance Of A Game?

George Best

'We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others' George Best 
 
Written in the months before he died, Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths is George's farewell letter to the great footballing era in which he burned so brightly - a personal history of the golden years before TV and agents changed everything. From the breaking of the maximum wage to the cusp of the first million-pound player, it follows the triumphs and tragedies of every season from 1960 to 1974. It is the story of our greatest footballing generation - Greaves, Moore, Law, Charlton, Osgood, Lorimer, Jennings, Hurst and, of course, Best himself.

Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths

The inside story of football's golden era

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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