THE DOTS WILL NOT BE JOINED is both a rich, sentimental memoir and a racy 'Compendium of Ideas'. It's about sport (mainly football and cricket) but it carries wise, sometimes cheeky diversions - snapshots into what makes us and what liberates us. The *stories* and the challenges range. Rick Walton is a coach and a writer with a fearless, impossibly positive streak coursing through him. He recounts scary or electrifying visits to football and those wonderfully daft adventures so many of us have had in village teams. Combs forgotten in boots; lacerating North Sea gales; chunks of orange and blissfully sweet tea; 'team talks'. But we also have Proper Coaching - notions around how to approach and nourish and support players. There is the contention, too, that sport really can be 'good'; that how we play can matter. All this in a matrix of arty or philosophical hunches which unashamedly (but also humbly) celebrate the raw, The Human, the ridiculous, the unknowable, the 'unweighted'. Walton's book is a one-off, daring to chase a zillion narratives so as to capture something actually rather profound about how activity works, in a world where the 'Social' and Corporate kaleidoscopes are blurring, bending and maybe even crushing our will.

The 150 editions of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack have contained a total of more than 133,000 pages since the first edition was published in 1864. Over the years the Almanack - published every year without fail - has charted the highs and lows of the game, giving its authoritative opinion on the players, the matches and the pressing issues of the day. The Essential Wisden provides the highlights of all 150 years for the first time. From the forthright Editor's Notes by the likes of Sydney Pardon, Norman Preston, John Woodcock and Matthew Engel, through reports on key matches around the world, and features on the game's top players, to the renowned obituaries of people in and around the game, and a range of cricket's idiosyncratic "Unusual Occurrences", John Stern and Marcus Williams distil the Almanack's most significant and fascinating writing into one anthology. With the pick of a century and a half of the best cricket writing from leading writers on the game, including John Arlott, Mike Atherton, Neville Cardus, Gideon Haigh, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and E. W. Swanton, and famous players such as Don Bradman, Denis Compton, Learie Constantine, Fred Spofforth, Mike Brearley and Michael Vaughan, The Essential Wisden provides a fascinating lens through which to view the evolution of the game.

England against Australia for the Ashes - it is one of the oldest and greatest rivalries in sport and almost its entire history has been covered in The Times. The whole story is here: from Shane Warne's ball of the century in 1993 to Gilbert Jessop's power hitting at The Oval in 1902; from the infamous Bodyline tour of 1932-33 to England's surrender to the pace of Lillee and Thomson in 1974-75; from Len Hutton's Coronation-year triumph in 1953 to the long years of defeat before the Ashes were finally recaptured in 2005. The Times on the Ashes showcases great batsmen like Bradman, Ponting, Gower, Trumper, Boycott, Greg Chappell, and the great bowlers of Trueman, Warne, Larwood, Lillee, Underwood, McGrath, Anderson, along with the great captains such as Brearley, Ian Chappell, Vaughan, Armstrong, Jardine, Steve Waugh and Hutton. This book recaptures more than a century of the highs and lows of Ashes cricket through the pages of The Times and features some of the greatest writers in the history of the sport.

** Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award ** Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play. But perhaps deciding to bluff his way into the press corps during England's Test series in India wasn't his best idea. By claiming to be the cricket correspondent for BBC Scotland and getting a job with the (Welsh) Western Mail, Miles lands the press pass that will surely be the ticket to his dreams. Soon, he finds himself in cricket heaven - drinking with David Gower and Beefy, sharing bar room banter with Nasser Hussain and swapping diarrhoea stories with the Test Match Special team. But struggling in the heat under the burden of his own fibs, reality soon catches up with Miles as he bumbles from one disaster to the next. A joyous, charming, yet cautionary tale, Fibber in the Heat is for anyone who's ever dreamt about doing nothing but watching cricket all day long.

Colin Cowdrey is remembered for the elegance of his strokeplay; but there was more to this complex man than a classical cover drive. Successes were numerous: 114 Test matches, 22 Test hundreds, 100 first-class centuries, countless famous victories and unforgettable innings. There was controversy and disappointment too, chief among them being repeated snubs for the England captaincy and the D'Oliveira Affair. Cowdrey was involved in three of England's most memorable Tests: Lord's in 1963 against the West Indies, batting at 11 with his arm in plaster, two balls left and all four results possible; Trinidad in 1968 in which England secured a famous victory against the West Indies; and The Oval in 1968 when England gained an improbable final-over win against Australia. In later life, he shone as an administrative leader - as president of Kent and of the MCC, and as chairman of the ICC - and was made a Lord. Sir Garry Sobers spoke for many when he said at his memorial service, "Colin Cowdrey was a great man."

Beyond The Pavilion spans seventy years of social, regional and cultural history through the eyes of one of cricket’s earliest Test match wayfarers, Barry Knight. As a ten-year-old, Barry saw Don Bradman’s 1948 ‘Invincibles’ at Lord’s. His early days were spent playing street cricket in London’s East End, captaining his school against Eton College, and later captaining England Schoolboys. At the age of fifteen, he was recruited to play for Essex and went on to become one of England’s finest all-round cricketers. In this memoir, Barry reflects on his international playing career and his experiences touring India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s. He recounts tours with Fred Trueman, Geoff Boycott, Ted Dexter, and Colin Cowdrey and playing against the era’s best Australian, Indian, Pakistani, and West Indian players. He also shares stories about life in London in the Swinging Sixties and his place in the D’Oliveira affair, and the anti-apartheid protests. After his retirement, Barry moved to Australia in the 1970s and became Australia’s first professional cricket coach mentoring and developing three Test match captains: Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh. He also had a front-row seat in the development of World Series Cricket. The book includes endorsements from leading players, commentators and journalists, including Sir Garfield Sobers, Allan Border, Ian Chappell, Barry Richards, Geoffrey Boycott, Doug Walters and Sir Michael Parkinson. This sporting memoir is richly illustrated with photographs from Andrew Leeming’s and other private collections.

Slipless in Settle is a sentimental journey around club cricket in the north of England, a world far removed from the cliched lengthening-shadows-on-the-village-green image of the summer game. This is hardcore cricket played in former pit villages and mill towns. Winner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the Year, it is about the little clubs that have, down the years, produced some of the greatest players Britain has ever seen, and at one time spent a fortune on importing the biggest names in the international game to boost their battle for local supremacy. Slipless in Settle is a warm, affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which Andrew Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with Asbo-tag-wearing all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas at the tea bar, two types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman is banned for a month for wearing a fireman's helmet when going out to face Joel Garner . . .

Cricket is defined by the characters who have played it, watched it, reported it, ruled upon it, ruined it and rejoiced in it. Humorous and deeply affectionate, Cricketing Lives tells the story of the world's greatest and most incomprehensible game through those who have shaped it, from the rustic contests of eighteenth-century England to the spectacle of the Indian Premier League. It's about W. G. Grace and his eye to his wallet; the invincible Viv Richards; and Sarah Taylor, 'the best wicketkeeper in the world . . . male or female'. Paying homage, too, to the game's great writers, Richard H. Thomas steers a course through the despair of war, tactical controversies and internecine politics, to reveal how cricket has always stormed back to warm our hearts as nothing else can.

A TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A treasure of recollections and reactions, talking heroes, controversies and big themes' i paper 'Brearley is at his best in these quirky, delightful essays when he is exploring the human qualities of humbler players . . . Brearley's admiration for his friends' decency, craftsmanship and modesty seems to recall a golden age of country cricket' The Times 'Brearley has a knack for paying respect to the past without denigrating the present and for calmly considering the future' Mail on Sunday Mike Brearley was arguably one of England's finest cricket captains; not just for his outstanding record leading his country but also for the way he orchestrated, during the 1981 Ashes series, one of the most extraordinary reversals in sporting history. In this collection of sparkling essays, Brearley reflects on the game he has come to know so well. He ranges from the personal - the influence of his Yorkshire father and the idols of his youth - to controversial aspects of the professional game, including cheating, corruption, and innovation, the latter often being on a borderline between genius and rebellion. Brearley also evaluates his heroes (amongst them Viv Richards, Bishan Bedi and Dennis Lillee), the game changers, the outstanding wicketkeepers, the 'Indian-ness' of four generations of Indian batsmen and the important commentators (including Harold Pinter, John Arlott and Ian Chappell). The Ashes, the most sustained love-hate relationship in the history of sport and key to Brearley's test-playing career, are raked over. Central to the book is an important section on race and cricket, and the legacy of C. L. R. James. Insightful and humorous, On Cricket is an intelligent exposition of the game's idiosyncratic culture and its enduring appeal.

As England's cricket team compete for the Ashes in Australia, ex-England spinner Phil Tufnell is enjoying life as a retired cricketer and national treasure. When the sporting legend hung up his cricket boots back in 2003, little did he know the dramatic direction his professional life would take next. Yet since being crowned 'King of the Jungle', the ex-England spin bowler has never looked back and has become a much loved television and radio presenter. Cricket's dressing-room clown is now broadcasting's joker in the pack. Whether it's dining on mealworms on I'm a Celebrity, displaying his ballroom fleckle on Strictly Come Dancing or causing weekly mayhem for the long-suffering host Sue Barker on A Question of Sport, millions of us enjoy Tuffers' lust for life and endearing sense of humour. In Where Am I?, Phil gamely tries to make sense of the wonderful roller-coaster he has been riding these last dozen years, delighting fans with a treasure trove of wonderful stories about the places he has been, the people he has met, the 'things' he has been asked to do but - most of all - the sheer enormous joy he has had doing it all. Five star reader reviews for Where Am I: 'Tuffers at his best. A great read, full of fun as you expect' 'Proper laugh out loud material from Tuffers, but also heartfelt stories about his family' 'I'm bowled over by this read. An ordinary guy doing extraordinary things all because he enjoyed his cricket'

Shortlisted for The Telegraph's Sports Book Awards - Autobiography of the Year, 2019 Longlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards One of the Daily Mail's and the Observer's Books of the Year, 2018 The match-winning superstar of the England cricket team finally shares his remarkable personal story in this eagerly-awaited autobiography. Moeen traces his journey from backyard cricket to the county game and his first-class debut as a teenager, through to his international debut at the relatively late age of 27 and the golden summer of 2017, when he was anointed Player of the Series against South Africa with thousands of England fans chanting his name. But cricket is just one part of Moeen's life. His upbringing in the tough Sparkhill neighbourhood of Birmingham and the awakening at eighteen that led him to become a devout Muslim have given him a social conscience unusual for an elite athlete but have also attracted controversy. Here, for the first time, Moeen tells his side of the story. Talented, tenacious and thoughtful, Moeen Ali is a true all-rounder.