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Books > Biography > Sport
Meet Marc 'Elvis' Priestley: the former number-one McLaren
mechanic, and the brains behind some of Formula One's greatest ever
drivers. Revealing the most outrageous secrets and fiercest
rivalries, The Mechanic follows Priestley as he travels the world
working in the high-octane atmosphere of the F1 pit lane. While the
spotlight is most often on the superstar drivers, the mechanics are
the guys who make every World Champion, and any mistakes can have
critical consequences. However, these highly skilled engineers
don't just fine-tune machinery and crunch data through high-spec
computers. These boys can seriously let their hair down. Whether
it's partying on luxury yachts or photo opportunites aboard
gravity-defying aeroplanes, this is a world which thrills on and
off the track. This is Formula One, but not like you've seen it
before.
Over 9,000 feet up on the top of Mount Roraima is a twenty-five
mile square plateau, at the point where Guyana's border meets
Venezuela and Brazil. In 1973, Scottish mountaineering legend
Hamish MacInnes alongside climbing notoriety Don Whillans, Mo
Anthoine and Joe Brown trekked through dense rainforest and swamp,
and climbed the sheer overhanging sandstone wall of the great prow
in order to conquer this Conan Doyle fantasy summit. As one of the
last unexplored corners of the world, in order to reach the foot of
the prow the motley yet vastly experienced expedition trudged
through a saturated world of bizarre vegetation, fantastically
contorted slime-coated trees and deep white mud; a world dominated
by bushmaster snakes, scorpions and giant bird-eating spiders. This
wasn't the end of it, however. The stately prow itself posed
extreme technical complications: the rock was streaming with water,
and the few-and-far-between ledges were teeming with
scorpion-haunted bromeliads. This was not a challenge to be taken
lightly. However, if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be
this group of UK climbing pioneers, backed by The Observer,
supported by the Guyanan Government, and accompanied by a BBC
camera team, their mission was very much in the public eye. Climb
to the Lost World is a story of discovering an alien world of
tortured rock formations, sunken gardens and magnificent
waterfalls, combined with the trials and tribulations of day-to-day
expedition life. MacInnes' dry humour and perceptive observations
of his companions, flora and fauna relay the story of this first
ascent with passion and in true explorer style.
'Ever since I first set foot on rock at the tender age of seven
years, climbing has been the most important thing in my life. In
fact I would go so far as to say it is my reason for living and as
long as I am able to climb I hope I will. It is from climbing I
draw my inspiration for life.' On 14 June 1990, at Raven Tor in the
Derbyshire Peak District, twenty-four-year-old Ben Moon squeezed
his feet into a pair of rock shoes, tied in to his rope, chalked
his fingers and pulled on to the wickedly overhanging,
zebra-striped wall of limestone. Two minutes later he had made
rock-climbing history with the first ascent of Hubble, now widely
recognised as the world's first F9a. Born in the suburbs of London
in 1966, Moon started rock climbing on the sandstone outcrops of
Kent and Sussex. A pioneer in the sport-climbing revolution of the
1980s and a bouldering legend in the 1990s, he is one of the most
iconic rock climbers in the sport's history, In Statement, Moon's
official biography, award-winning writer Ed Douglas paints a
portrait of a climbing visionary and dispels the myth of Moon as an
anti-traditional climbing renegade. Interviews with Moon are
complemented with insights from family and friends and extracts
from magazines and personal diaries and letters.
Geoffrey Boycott is undoubtedly one of England's greatest ever
batsmen. Playing 108 Test matches between 1964 and 1982, the hugely
controversial opener scored a then record 8,114 runs at 47.72 - the
highest completed average of any English player since 1970 -
against some of the greatest bowlers the world has ever seen. When
the first lockdown came, finding himself without cricket for the
first time in his life, Geoffrey Boycott sat down and began to
write a retrospective warts-and-all diary of each of his Test match
appearances. It is illuminating and unsparing, characterised by
Boycott's astonishing memory, famous forthrightness and
unvarnished, sometimes lacerating, honesty. That 100,000 word
document forms the basis for Being Geoffrey Boycott, a device that
takes the reader inside Geoffrey's head and back through cricket
history, presenting a unique portrait of the internal and external
forces that compelled him from a pit village in Yorkshire to the
pinnacle of the world game. Now 81 and still one of the most
recognisable cricketers England has ever produced, Boycott has
teamed up with award-winning author Jon Hotten in this catalogue of
his tumultuous time with the national side. Dropped for scoring a
slow double hundred, making himself unavailable to play for England
for several years, captain for eight seasons of a group of strong,
stroppy and extremely talented players at Yorkshire, bringing up
his hundredth hundred at Headingley against the Old Enemy, seeing
David Gower and Ian Botham emerge as future greats, playing under
Mike Brearley in the 1981 Ashes, in this enlightening book Boycott
reveals a host of never-before-heard details regarding his peers
and his playing days.
No immortal in the history of baseball retired so young, so
well, or so completely as Sandy Koufax. After compiling a
remarkable record from 1962 to 1966 that saw him lead the National
League in ERA all five years, win three Cy Young awards, and pitch
four no-hitters including a perfect game, Koufax essentially
disappeared. Save for his induction into the Hall of Fame and
occasional appearances at the Dodgers training camp, Koufax has
remained unavailable, unassailable, and unsullied, in the process
becoming much more than just the best pitcher of his generation. He
is the Jewish boy from Brooklyn, who refused to pitch the opening
game of the 1965 World Series on Yom Kippur, defining himself as a
man who placed faith over fame. This act made him the standard to
which Jewish parents still hold their children. Except for his
autobiography (published in 1966), Koufax has resolutely avoided
talking about himself. But through sheer doggedness that even
Koufax came to marvel at, Jane Leavy was able to gain his trust to
the point where they talked regularly over the three years Leavy
reported her book. With Koufax′s blessing, Leavy interviewed nearly
every one of his former teammates, opponents, and friends, and
emerged with a portrait of the artist that is as thorough and
stylish as was his command on the pitching mound.
He was one of the hardest, most controversial footballers of his
generation: the GBP20million man who became the first professional
player to go to jail for an offence committed on the field of play.
He was the fans' hero who disappeared. Duncan Ferguson was an
old-fashioned Scottish centre-forward who went from a boarding
house in Dundee to the marble staircase of Rangers in a
record-breaking transfer. His GBP4m move from Dundee United to
Ibrox made him British football's most expensive native player. But
he would also become one of the most notorious footballers in the
land. Sent to prison after head-butting an opponent during a
Scottish Premier Division match between Rangers and Raith Rovers,
Ferguson made history all over again. He served half of a
three-month sentence in Glasgow's infamous Barlinnie Prison. A
twelve-match ban from the Scottish Football Association was later
overturned following a long appeal process. Bruised by the
experience, he turned his back on Scotland's national team and the
media. Ferguson reaped the riches of the Sky era. He was a folk
hero at Everton, where he spent ten years either side of an
injury-hit spell at Newcastle United. Although the game made him a
millionaire, he rejected its new culture of celebrity and remained
a fiery figure, racking up a Premiership record of eight red cards.
And then, after scoring in the final minute of the last game of his
career, he turned his back on football completely - or so it
seemed.
Shortlisted for the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Biography of the
Year.Nat Lofthouse is a name that rings through the annals of
English football history like few others. He was a pivotal figure
in one of the true golden ages of the beautiful game, ending his
career as the leading goal scorer for both his club and his
country, with a reputation as one of the game's true greats. His
retirement coincided almost exactly with the abolition of the
maximum wage, and ensured that his name would forever be identified
with a time before money flooded the game and changed it
inexorably. Lofty explores not only Lofthouse's life and career in
detail never done before, but also delves into his personality and
motivation through various key points of his life. Matt Clough uses
interviews with those who knew him best and played alongside him,
extensive research into newspaper archives and, of course, the
words of the man himself to breathe life into one of football's
most legendary figures.
A hilarious and, at times, moving and soul-searching account of
rugby union's rollercoaster days in the 1990s, told through the
eyes of a player who saw it all as the sport lurched shambolically
from the crazy final days of amateurism into the professional era.
Martin Bayfield has a story to tell. Indeed, some might describe it
as a very tall story. Standing at 6ft 10ins, the former England and
British and Irish Lions second row remains one of the tallest
players ever to have played international rugby, and his immense
physical stature made him one of the most destructive forwards in
the world game. He played for England during one of the most
successful eras in English rugby, winning two Grand Slams alongside
legendary players such as Will Carling, Jeremy Guscott, Brian Moore
and Rory Underwood. His international heyday came at a seminal
moment for rugby union when, almost overnight, it was transformed
from a noble minority sport to a celebrity event, with stories
appearing on the front pages of the British tabloids. Now Bayfield
is ready to reveal the inside story of that rip-roaring decade that
changed forever the face of English rugby. The book provides an
emotional link between the generations, so that today's fans can
reconnect with rugby's soul. Renowned as one of rugby's best and
most entertaining storytellers, the former policeman and Hagrid's
body double has written a brilliant and very funny love letter to a
sport that continues to inspire and entertain millions.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 The
full story of the man who brought unprecedented - and since
unmatched - success to Liverpool FC Bob Paisley was the quiet man
in the flat cap who swept all domestic and European opposition
aside and produced arguably the greatest club team that Britain has
ever known. The man whose Liverpool team won trophies at a
rate-per-season that dwarfs Sir Alex Ferguson's achievements at
Manchester United and who remains the only Briton to lead a team to
three European Cups. From Wembley to Rome, Manchester to Madrid,
Paisley's team was the one no one could touch. Working in a city
which was on its knees, in deep post-industrial decline, still
tainted by the 1981 Toxteth riots and in a state of open warfare
with Margaret Thatcher, he delivered a golden era - never
re-attained since - which made the city of Liverpool synonymous
with success and won them supporters the world over. Yet, thirty
years since Paisley died, the life and times of this shrewd,
intelligent, visionary, modest football man have still never been
fully explored and explained. Based on in-depth interviews with
Paisley's family and many of the players whom he led to an
extraordinary haul of honours between 1974 and 1983, Quiet Genius
is the first biography to examine in depth the secrets of Paisley's
success. It inspects his man-management strategies, his
extraordinary eye for a good player, his uncanny ability to
diagnose injuries in his own players and the opposition, and the
wicked sense of humour which endeared him to so many. It explores
the North-East mining community roots which he cherished, and
considers his visionary outlook on the way the game would develop.
Quiet Genius is the story of how one modest man accomplished more
than any other football manager, found his attributes largely
unrecorded and undervalued and, in keeping with the gentler ways of
his generation, did not seem to mind. It reveals an individual who
seemed out of keeping with the brash, celebrity sport football was
becoming, and who succeeded on his own terms. Three decades on from
his death, it is a football story that demands to be told.
Too big for the Primary School reps, and in his day the tallest man
to have played on Lancaster Park, Nugget Pringle won Wellington
caps in his first season of senior rugby with the Oriental Club,
and went on to win an All Black cap the following year, 1923. In
the training camp before the first test against New South Wales he
proved a great entertainer and his Salome was a scream, but a
cauliflower ear (one of many) led to his withdrawal from the match.
He scored a try in the second test, which the All Blacks won
handsomely, but, despite every endeavour for the next 4 years,
failed to gain a second cap. En route he played for and against the
All Blacks and against New Zealand Maoris, winning all three and
scoring a try in two. Fate's fickle fingers nonetheless conspired,
through injury, illness, selection policy and sheer misfortune, to
cause him to miss further home internationals as well as tours to
Australia and South Africa. Most importantly, although a hot
favourite all season, he missed out by a whisker on a place with
the 1924/25 Invincibles. With the benefit of contemporary press
cuttings in the family scrapbook, and from the archives, we follow
here his playing career at club, representative and national level,
while we also learn of his achievements in the worlds of athletics
and cricket, and how he gained the unusual distinction of playing
both rugby and cricket, as well as winning the shot put, on
Athletic Park. A genial giant who gave his all for the game he
loved, but, in terms of his playing career and All Black
appearances, was he the Unluckiest All Black? Judge for yourself.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CAPTAIN IN WORLD RUGBY HISTORY, IN HIS OWN
WORDS Richie McCaw, Rugby World Cup winning captain and the New
Zealand All Black's most capped player of all time, is
unquestionably the greatest player of his generation. He is
arguably the most talented player of all time. In his bestselling
autobiography, McCaw talks with brutal honesty about the roots of
his family life that defined his character and how it gave him the
strength to emerge from the lowest moment in his career to lift the
Webb Ellis Cup, and become the most successful captain world rugby
has ever seen. As the first captain to successfully defend the
World Cup, McCaw has set the standard of what a professional rugby
player should be. Hugely popular and respected, his sheer presence
means that he is a natural leader both on and off the pitch and his
story is not just a brutal account of life on the front line, but
an exhilarating portrait of modern rugby.
For 39 seasons at four schools, Dr. Edward N. Anderson spent autumn
afternoons roaming the sidelines of college and university
gridirons across America. Throughout his career, dignity, composure
and a penetrating focus were hallmarks of his sideline decorum.
This biography catalogues the life of that ""good doctor"" who
became dean of America's college football coaches and was enshrined
in the College Football Hall of Fame for lasting influence.
Beginning with his young life as a star player, the book relates
how Anderson mastered the game as an All-American end under Notre
Dame's legendary Knute Rockne. Then, armed with a firm command of
the so-called Notre Dame system of football, Anderson entered the
collegiate coaching ranks in 1922 and served as a head coach for
all but four of the next 43 years. Simultaneously, he devoted
himself to the practice of medicine and guided his teams to
hundreds of victories. Dr. Anderson is a football icon not only for
the indelible impression he made on hundreds of young men who had
played for him but also for his role as one of the last of an era
of gentlemen coaches who had cut their teeth on football during the
Rockne era. On the eve of his retirement from college football in
1964, Dr. Anderson was the game's elder statesman, revered by
players, fellow coaches, fans and members of the press. His
football odyssey, during which he crossed paths with the most
influential and colorful personalities of the game, is chronicled
in depth.
At the age of 20, Dennis Horn won his first English Rose - the
emblem of a National track champion. Throughout the 1930s he
rapidly graduated from the rough and tumble of makeshift grass
track racing at country fairs and gala sports days in provincial
towns to assail the heights of British track cycling on the great
urban cycling bastions of the time - the hard-surfaced stadiums of
London's Herne Hill and Manchester's Fallowfield - and become the
star of British track racing. Every year from 1931 to 1938 he was
awarded the season-long Meredith Trophy to add to those legendary
gold and silver cups he'd won in fiercely contested track battles
in front of crowds of tens of thousands. It was a cycling scene
entirely unique to Britain in the years before World War II. But
this is more than a simple tale of a strapping rural lad who took
on and beat the streetwise metropolitan champions of his era.
Dennis Horn, son of a Fenland blacksmith, proved himself to be as
astute as any of his urban contemporaries at treading the fine line
between amateurism and professionalism as defined by the
puritanical British cycling establishment of their day.
`It is often from our setbacks, even our weaknesses, that we derive
some of our greatest blessings.' That Untravelled World is the
autobiography of one of the greatest adventurers of the twentieth
century. Eric Shipton was a pioneering explorer, journeying to
places that did not feature on maps and to unexplored mountains,
such as the High Dauphine. Shipton describes early childhood days
filled with adventures; his first encounter with the high mountains
on a visit to the Pyrenees, and the onset of his climbing career
inspired by travels in Norway with a friend. He reminisces on first
meeting infamous explorer H.W. `Bill' Tilman, and their first
expedition together to Mount Kenya. Tilman and Shipton were later
to become one of the most famous climbing partnerships of all time.
Filled with anecdotes from different periods of his life, Shipton
takes us on his journey from Kilimanjaro and Mount Stanley
alongside Tilman, his discovery of the route to the Nanda Devi
Sanctuary, summiting Mount Kamet with mountaineering icon Frank
Smythe, and multiple expeditions to Everest. First published in
1969, That Untravelled World is the story of an adventurer who,
inspired by Edward Whymper, travelled to feral landscapes across
the globe, and has in turn inspired generations of climbers and
mountaineers.
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The two time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
Award on George Best, considered the greatest footballer of our
time. No other imposed himself so completely on to the romantic
imagination. No other was so emblematic of the era during which he
flourished. And no other will ever be as memorable as George Best.
On the field Best's skills were sublime and almost other-worldly.
Off it, he had a magnetic appeal. He was treated like a pop icon
and a pin-up; a fashion-model and a sex-symbol. Every man envied
him and every woman adored him. To mark the 50th anniversary of his
debut for Manchester United, Duncan Hamilton examines Best's
crowded life and premature death. But most importantly, Hamilton
presents Best at his glorious peak - the precocious goals, the
labyrinthine runs, the poise and balletic balance and the body
swerves. This is George Best: footballing immortal.
In 1982, following the relaxation of access restrictions to Tibet,
six climbers set off for the Himalaya to explore the little-known
Shishapangma massif in Tibet. Dealing with a chaotic build-up and
bureaucratic obstacles so huge they verged on comical, the
mountaineers gained access to Shishapangma's unclimbed South-West
Face where Doug Scott, Alex MacIntyre and Roger Baxter-Jones made
one of the most audacious and stylish Himalayan climbs ever. First
published in 1984 as The Shishapangma Expedition, Shishapangma won
the first ever Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. Told
through a series of diary-style entries from all the climbers
involved, Shishapangma reveals the difficult nature of Himalayan
decision-making, mountaineering tactics and climbing relationships.
Tense and candid, the six writers see every event differently,
reacting in different ways and pulling no punches in their opinions
of the other mountaineers - quite literally at one point.
Nonetheless, the climbers, at the peak of their considerable powers
and experience, completed an extremely committing enterprise. The
example set by their fine climb survives and several new routes
(all done in alpine style) have now been added to this magnificent
face. For well-trained climbers, such ascents are fast and
efficient, but the consequences of error, misjudgement or bad luck
can be terminal and, sadly, soon afterwards two of the participants
were struck down in mountaineering accidents - MacIntyre hit by
stonefall on Annapurna's South Face and Baxter-Jones being caught
by an ice avalanche on the Aiguille du Triolet. In addition their
support climber, Nick Prescott, died in a Chamonix hospital from an
altitude-induced ailment. Shishapangma is a gripping first-hand
account of the intense reality of high-altitiude alpinism.
The Next Horizon, the second volume in Chris Bonington's
autobiography after I Chose to Climb, picks up his story from 1962
and relates his subsequent adventures as a mountaineer,
photographer, journalist and expedition leader alongside eminent
climbers including Doug Scott and Don Whillans, throughout an
extraordinary decade of adversity, thrill and discovery. The book
opens with a journey to Chile to climb the Central Tower of Paine.
Bonington then recounts his ascents across the globe; from the Old
Man of Hoy in Scotland, the Eiger in Switzerland, to Sangay in
Ecuador to name but a few. He concludes in the summer of 1972 with
preparations for his ambitious autumn Everest expedition. This
revealing narrative of Chris Bonington's experiences provides an
insight into the charismatic generation of climbing personalities
with whom he travelled, as well as his development into the
celebrity we know today.
Sir Chris Bonington is a household name as a result of his
distinguished mountaineering career during which he has lead
pioneering expeditions to the summits of some of the most stunning
mountains in the world. The Everest Years shares the story of his
relationship with the highest and most sought-after peak on the
planet, Everest, and his ultimate fulfilment upon finally summiting
in 1985 at age fifty. Bonington chronicles four expeditions to the
Himalaya and Everest, including the 1975 South-West Face expedition
on which he was leader and on which Doug Scott and Dougal Haston
became the first Britons to summit the mountain. Bonington also
recounts expeditions to K2 and The Ogre (Baintha Brakk) in the
Karakoram, and Kongur, in China, describing passionately each
attempt: the logistics, glory, and tragedy, seeking to explain his
perpetual fascination with the highest points on earth, despite
repeatedly enduring the trauma of losing friends, and often placing
huge responsibility upon anxious loved ones left at home. The
Everest Years reveals Bonington's love and appreciation for his
ever-supportive wife Wendy, the loyal Sherpas, the companions
sharing his mountain memories including Doug Scott, Dougal Haston,
Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker and Mo Anthoine, and of course the
glorious peaks of the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges.
Following I Chose to Climb and The Next Horizon, this final
instalment of Bonington's autobiography will take you through a
huge spectrum of brutally honest emotions and majestic landscapes.
A publishing phenomenon in hardback, Roy Keane's autobiography was
the biggest selling sports book of the year. The book will include
a new chapter covering events that followed the books publication:
Keane's vindication by the FAI report; the punishment meted out by
the FA and Mick McCarthy's resignation. Brilliantly reviewed, Roy
Keane's riveting, brutally honest autobiography has the potential
to be one of the year's biggest paperback bestsellers.
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.
For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?
Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.
Reach for the Racquet is the story of a young Sikh man, Meva Dhesi,
who overcomes adversity following a horrific car accident and
ultimately achieves his dreams of becoming a competitive badminton
and Para badminton player. With the help of his amputee and
badminton friends, Sikh religion, close family, and surrounding
community, Meva found he could recover, rehabilitate, get fit,
compete, and most important of all, succeed. His story is brought
to life in witty, humorous prose. It will inspire anyone who is
facing challenges and struggles to overcome and reach their goals.
The sky's the limit!
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