Sport & Games

You can see them, but you don't know them. Ultras are football fans like no others. A hugely visible and controversial part of the global game, their credo and aesthetic replicated in almost every league everywhere on earth, a global movement of extreme fandom and politics is also one of the largest youth movements in the world. Yet they remain unknown: an anti-establishment force that is transforming both football and politics. In this book, James Montague goes underground to uncover the true face of this dissident force for the first time. 

1312: Among the Ultras tells the story of how the movement began and how it grew to become the global phenomenon that now dominates the stadiums from the Balkans and Buenos Aires.

In the autumn of 2020 Ned Boulting (ITV head cycling commentator and Tour de France obsessive) bought a length of Pathé news film from a London auction house. All he knew was it was film from the Tour de France, a long time ago.

Once restored it became clear it was a short sequence of shots from stage 4 of the 1923 Tour de France. No longer than 2.5 minutes long, it featured half a dozen sequences, including a lone rider crossing a bridge. Ned set about learning everything he could about the sequence - studying each frame, face and building - until he had squeezed the meaning from it. It sets him off in fascinating directions, encompassing travelogue, history, mystery story - to explain, to go deeper into this moment in time, captured on his little film. 

Join him as he explores the history of cycling and France just five years after WWI - meeting characters like Henri Pélissier, who won the Tour that year but who would within the decade be shot dead by his lover using the same pistol with which his wife had killed herself. And Theophile Beeckman - the lone rider on the bridge.

The inside story of Leicester City’s triumph on winning the Premier League in May 2016, to ecstatic celebrations in the city and around the world. The team, under Claudio Ranieri’s inspired leadership, became the most unlikely champions in football history.

BBC Football correspondent, Mike Ingham, MBE, shares a candid, comprehensive, and sometimes, controversial account of how the world of broadcasting and football changed beyond recognition throughout his career. He recalls England's campaigns in tournaments over the last half century with a detailed and eyewitness account of what the atmosphere was really like over the years behind the scenes in the England camp.

Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England v Australia battles, having played in three series wins and also the whitewash defeat of 2013-14 when its intensity ended his international career.

However, it brought out some of his best displays in Test cricket. But he is just one of dozens of colourful characters to have added their chapters to this great tome. The mock obituary of English cricket in the Sporting Times of 1882 was the forerunner of summers and winters of heaven and hell, depending on which side of the divide you were situated. When it comes to on-field relations nothing quite compares to the over-my-dead-body feel of the Ashes. 

Swann's book will reveal the magic of a series that first gripped him in his front room in Northampton as an aspiring spin bowler in the mid-1980s.

For nearly 75 years, one BBC programme has been a constant factor in chronicling the way sport is covered, in all its many facets.

First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC's hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades.

Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report, details the challenges faced in getting live interviews on air from draughty, noisy dressing-room areas and celebrates the feat of just a small production team in the studio who, somehow, get the show up and running every Saturday, with the clock ticking implacably on.

This is an account of how the game of football turned ugly in Saddam's Iraq. A tale of human strengths, failings and resilience. Saddam's crazed and evil eldest son emerges as a villain of demonic proportions. If he could treat national heroes this grotesquely what hope was there for the ordinary Iraqi? X rated, contains graphic violence.

For sixteen days in the summer of 1936, the world’s attention turned to Berlin as it hosted the Olympic Games. During the sporting events the dictatorship was partially put on hold. Here, seen through the eyes of a cast of characters – Nazi leaders and foreign diplomats, athletes and journalists, nightclub owners and jazz musicians - is a last glimpse of the vibrant and diverse life in Berlin in the 1920s and 30s that the Nazis aimed to destroy.

Goalkeepers in trousers, proper division names, turf patterns, pixelated scoreboards and, of course, Saturday evening pink newspapers... They were the gritty stardust that made football sparkle. Here, 50 such wonders are drawn together with evocative charm before they slip from memory forever. Dedicating a chapter to each wonder, Daniel Gray's pieces read more like love letters than essays. Here is a sentimental meander beneath main-stand clocks and through streets where children still play football.

The unashamedly nostalgic Black Boots and Football Pinks will warm the heart and prompt fond sighs of recognition. Gray's words preserve on paper the relics and minutiae of a shared obsession and identity. They make yesterday's football feel within touching distance, and offer cosy refuge from a boisterous game and world.

This unique assortment of articles comes from the popular Boxing News 'Yesterday's Heroes' column. 

In this compilation, Alex Daley has delved deep into the archives and interviewed ex-fighters to uncover some of boxing's most intriguing stories. British legends like Jimmy Wilde, Jim Driscoll, Ted Kid Lewis, Jock McAvoy, Benny Lynch, Freddie Mills, Randolph Turpin, John Conteh and Terry Downes all feature. As do American greats like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Greb, Sonny Liston and Jack Dempsey. Read about the world champion who was sold to a boxing booth by his father, the boxer hanged for murder, the bareknuckle champ who became an MP and the fighter who started a mutiny.

Boxing Nostalgia takes you on a journey through British ring history, from the bareknuckle era to the late 20th century, with stories that are often sad, staggering or downright bizarre.

Boxing is Steve Bunce's game. He has filed thousands and thousands of fight reports from ringside. He has written millions and millions of words for national newspapers previewing boxing, profiling boxers and proselytising on the business. He has been the voice of British boxing on the airwaves, both radio and television, with an army of loyal fans. And now it's time to put those many years of experience into penning his history of the sport of kings on these isles. It's Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing.

Starting in 1970, the beginning of modern boxing in Britain, Bunce takes us from Joe Bugner beating Henry Cooper to an explosion then in the sport's exposure to the wider British public, with 22 million watching Barry McGuigan win his world title on the BBC. All boxing royalty is here - Frank Bruno taking on Mike Tyson in Las Vegas; Benn, Watson, Eubank and Naseem; Ricky Hatton, Lennox Lewis and Calzaghe; Froch and Haye - through to a modern day situation where with fighters as diverse as Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, we have more world champions than ever before. And besides the fighters, there are the fixers, the managers, the trainers, the duckers and divers... Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing will have every high and impossible low, tragic deaths and fairy tales. It is a record of British boxing, British boxing people and fifty years of glory, heartache and drama.

A cultural and business history of the UFC, tracing the unlikely rise of mixed martial arts from what was derided in the '90s as "human cockfighting" - more violence than sport - to a global pop culture phenomenon. Senator John McCain once decried mixed martial arts as "human cockfighting," while the New York Times despaired that the sport offered a "pay-per-view prism" onto the decline of western civilization. But the violent spectacle of cage fighting no longer feels nearly as scandalous as it did when the sport debuted in 1993. Today, it's spoken of reverentially as a kind of "human chess" played out in real-time between two bodies and the UFC is one of the most valuable franchises in the world, worth more than any team in the NFL, NBA, or MLB and equal to what Disney paid to acquire Marvel Comics.

Once banned in thirty-six states and hovering on the edge of bankruptcy, the UFC has evolved into a $10 billion industry. How did cage fighting go so mainstream? A rollicking behind-the-scenes account of one of the most spectacular upsets in American sports history, Kings of the Cage follows the desperate fighters, audacious promoters, fanboy bloggers, fatherly trainers, philosophical announcers, hustling sponsors, and three improbable twentysomething corporate titans on a darkly comic odyssey to normalize a new level of brutality in American pop culture-and make a fortune doing so. Stylishly written and poignantly observed, the book offers a provocative look at how the hollowing out of the American dream over the past three decades and the violence endemic to modern capitalism left us ready to embrace a sport like cage fighting.

It is in the midst of a swirling river, casting a line, that Mark Wormald meets Ted Hughes. He stands where the poet stood, forty years ago, because fishing was Ted Hughes's way of breathing - and because the poet's writing has made Mark understand that it has always been his way of breathing, too.

Using Hughes's poetry collection River and his fishing diaries as a guide, Mark returns again and again to the rivers and lakes in Britain and Ireland where the poet fished. At times, he uses Ted's fly patterns; at others his rods. It is an obsession; a fundamental connection to nature; a thrilling wildness; an elemental pursuit. But it is also a release and a consolation, as Mark fishes after the sudden death of his mother and during the slow fading of his father.

Over the course of fifteen years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI. Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer. In Champagne Football, Tighe and Rowan dig deep into the story of Delaney's career and of the FAI's slide into ruin.

Cricket originated in 16th-century England and was gradually introduced throughout the British Empire. The author, a fan and radio commentator, presents an irreverent account of cricket, its leadership and its secret scandals!

It is 140 years since England first played Test match cricket and, for much of that time, it has struggled to perform to the best of its capabilities. It was only in the 1990s that Team England began to receive the best possible support from an ever-increasing backroom team. As England play their 1000th Test, this is an insight into the ups and downs of their story.

Despite its flaws and excesses, modern football is still sprinkled with simple yet beguiling delights. From club lottos to undeserved wins, and from pitch-invading animals to the roar after a minute's silence, Extra Time is a romantic celebration of football fandom and its shared joys, habits, eccentricities and peculiarities. It is a salute to keepers going forward for corners, match balls landing on stand roofs and goals scored in quick succession. These chapters offer a gleeful antidote to disillusionment with modern football, VAR and all. They are reminders of why we care and justifications for our devotion. Each warmly evokes this sport's blessed capacity to offer escape and diversion. 

What do you do when your world changes in an instant? For Jon Harvey, after the sudden death of his brother, it meant turning to the thing that had given him support, joy and a lifetime of memories: sport, in all its myriad sublime and ridiculous forms. A kaleidoscopic twelve months took him from London Olympia to ancient Olympia, from rugby balls to Rubik's Cubes, Wimbledon tennis to Wimbledon greyhounds, Twickenham to Frimley Green, Roger Federer to Martin 'Wolfie' Adams, and much, much more. It's a celebration, of a life shaped by sport, and the ultimate season ticket.

The declaration of war against Germany in 1939 brought an end to the Golden Age of English cricket. Using unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs, Christopher Sandford recreates that last summer. Few English cricket teams began their first post-war season without holding memorial ceremonies for the men they had lost: He pays homage not only to these men, but to the lost innocence, heroism and human endurance of the age.

Whether you're a Pointless armchair aficionado, nostalgic for the days of Going for Gold, or a bona fide Mastermind...THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!! Fingers on Buzzers! is an interactive, kaleidoscopic, bonanza celebration and history of the British quiz from Lucy Porter and Jenny Ryan, the presenters of the podcast Fingers on Buzzers. For quiz fans everywhere, Fingers on Buzzers! is a nostalgic celebration of our great British obsession - from the early days of TV quiz shows to our more recent love of the pub quiz - incorporating a huge host of pop quizzes for the whole family to enjoy.

Daisy Upton has two little kids. She loves them - but they drive her mad. So, to try and keep her sanity she started to come up with quick, easy games using stuff from around the house. And @FiveMinuteMum was born. In her first book, she has collected more than 150 games that take five minutes to set up and five minutes to tidy up. From pasta posting to alphabet knock down, it's a recipe book for guilt free parenting! And as Daisy was a teaching assistant, your little ones will be learning while they play! What could be better? Give Me Five is the perfect companion for anyone who wants five minutes peace.

A rich portrait of English football from the end of the Second World War to the present.

Tim Moore, a self-confessed loafer, was seduced by the glamour of the Tour de France. He decided to cycle the 3,630 km route, but allocated himself six weeks to complete the challenge. Here he hilariously describes how he tried to emulate his sporting heroes.

Goodwood has been the home of English sport for centuries. This story of how a small hunting lodge became the iconic location for the globally-renowned Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival events, is set against a panoramic backdrop of English history. At the heart of this vivid portrait is a rich sense of the British heritage that Goodwood embodies.

Sir Steve Redgrave recounts his favourite Olympic stories and reveals what it is that makes these moments truly great. All the stars of past and present are here, including Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Nadia Comenech, Mark Spitz, Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Bob Beamon, Ed Moses, and Flojo.

Neville Cardus, the most revered cricket writer in the world, once described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Duncan Hamilton, an award-winning sports writer himself, demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions.

Charlie Campbell guides us through the realities of captaining an amateur cricket team.

Herding Cats picks its way through the minefield of an amateur's season: from the excitement and hope of pre-season nets, to the desperate scramble to gather 11 players for a frosty game on a far-flung, desolate pitch; from decoding the casual phrase 'I bat a bit', to setting a field of players who can't catch or throw; from handling the most delicate egos, to dealing with a case of the yips; from frequent moments of despair, to sudden and joyful glimpses of unexpected glory.

For all those of us who recognise ourselves, our teammates, our friends and partners in the shambling joy of amateur cricket more than in the top-class international game, Campbell lights a path through a weekend world of play of the world's second most popular sport.

Brian Glanville's dramatic history of the world's most famous football tournament has become the most authoritative guide to the World Cup. Since the very first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, his classic account is a vivid celebration of the great players and legendary matches in the competition - as well as a bold attack on those who have mismanaged the 'beautiful game'.

The former chief executive of the All England Tennis Club takes us behind the scenes of an establishment where decisions are still made through a committee system dating back to 1868. He reveals the stories behind the 1973 players’ boycott, the McEnroe tantrums, demands for equal prize money and the Olympic bid.

Godlike genius or the focus of a disappointed nation's fury - the world's most prestigious tournament makes or breaks a national coach. Only 20 managers have guided their team to World Cup glory, so what are their secrets? From revolutionary tactics to hare-brained schemes, this book searches for the keys to the most exclusive club in international football.

Discover the tactical innovations and brilliant strategies as well as the bizarre superstitions, psychological masterclasses and bonkers team-building regimes that managers have employed in the quest for that iconic trophy. Charting the successes, failures, dramas and controversies of 90 years of World Cup action, through the insights of journalists, players and managers with first-hand experience of World Cup competition, this book comprehensively documents the lengths the man in the dugout will go to in order to bring home the greatest prize. 

Travel-writer, novelist and singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack has been passionate about fishing since he was young.

Growing up in Shetland, with its myriad lochs, he and his brother would roam the island in search of trout, and in so doing discovered a sense of freedom, of wonder, and an abiding passion.

But why is it that catching a fish - or simply contemplating catching a fish - can be so thrilling, so captivating?

Why is it that time spent beside water can be imprinted so sharply in the memory?

Why is it that what seems such a simple act - that of casting a line and hoping - can feel so rich in mystery?

Illuminated by Water is Malachy's personal attempt to understand that freedom, and to trace the origins and sources of that sense of wonder. He shares the appeal of fishing, its intense joys and frustrations, the steadying effect it has both at water's edge and in the memory, and the contemplation of nature and landscape that comes with being an angler. He writes about fishing expeditions, from English canals and Scottish lochs to lakes in Canada and New Zealand, and he reflects on other aspects of angling, from its cultural significance and the emerging moral complexities to the intricacies of tying a fly.

Beautifully written and hugely engaging, this book both articulates the inexplicable lure of the river and the endless desire to return to it, and illuminates a passion that has shaped the way so many see and think about the natural world.

'Heartfelt, passionate, infuriating and often devastating, this book will inspire you to fight for your right to tread your own path' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, author of Invisible Women When Rachel loses five family members in five months, grief magnifies other absences. Running across moors and mountains used to help her feel at home in her body and the world, but now she becomes painfully aware of her inability to run without being cat-called or followed by strange men, or to walk alone at night without fear. Her eyes are opened to injustices facing women in sport, from men who push her off paths during races, to male bias in competition regulations, kit and media coverage. The outdoors becomes a place of danger, sharpening her sense of the grief women experience - every day, everywhere - for lack of freedom.

Rachel goes in search of a new family: the foremothers who blazed a trail at the dawn of outdoor sport. She discovers Lizzie Le Blond, a courageous Anglo-Irishwoman who scaled the Alps in woollen skirts, photographed fearless women climbing, skating and tobogganing at breakneck speeds, and founded the Ladies' Alpine Club, defying men who wanted the mountains to themselves. Yet after such groundbreaking progress in the late 1800s, a backlash drove women out of sports and public space. Are we now living through a similar reversal in women's rights or an era of unprecedented liberty? Telling Lizzie's story alongside her own, Rachel runs her way from bereavement to belonging, in a world that feels hostile to women. On the way she's inspired by the tenacious women, past and present, who insist that breaking boundaries outdoors is, and always has been, in her nature.

If you complete a bike race of over 3,000 kilometres in the slowest time, should you be branded the loser? Lanterne Rouge flips the Tour de France on its head and examines the stories of the riders who don’t win the trophy, and forces us to re-examine the meaning of success, failure and the very nature of sport.

An entertaining and wryly amusing collection of mini-essays on cricket by much-loved pundit. From Somerset stalwart to acclaimed writer and broadcaster, Vic Marks has lived a life steeped in cricket.

In Late Cuts he takes us beyond the boundary rope, sharing the parts of the game fans don't get to see, from the food served at tea-time (then: sweaty ham. Now: quinoa, cranberry and feta salad) to the politics of the dressing room. With chapters on what it feels like to be dropped, how to be a good twelfth man, captaincy, selection and more, this amusing and insightful collection will delight all cricket lovers.

Journalist Mark Ryan gives a fascinating insight into the story and the people behind the World Cup tournament, the key players and teams who have inspired millions of people around the globe to cheer their team on to glory and to see their country claim that most prized sporting trophy in the history of the ‘beautiful game’. For any lovers of football, this is a must-listen.

Time's arrow traditionally plots an incremental path into declining strength and speed for all of us. But we are different to every other generation of cyclists in human history. An ever-growing number of us are determined to scale the highest peaks of elite physical fitness into middle-age and beyond. Can the emerging medical and scientific research help us achieve the holy triumvirate of speed and health with age?

The Midlife Cyclist offers a gold standard road-map for the mature cyclist who aims to train, perform and even race at the highest possible level.