Showing titles in Sports

Glyn Rhodes MBE has devoted his life to boxing. Since wandering into the world-famous St Thomas' gym in Sheffield as a directionless teenager, he has spent more than 40 years working inside and outside the ropes. Cognizant of how this hardest of sports both saved and brutalized him, he is now ready to tell his story. Rhodes' reflections offer fresh perspectives on the likes of Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson, Herol Graham, Clinton Woods, the British Boxing Board of Control, plus his complicated relationship with the iconic Brendan Ingle.

In 2003, England won the Rugby World Cup. Steve Thompson was there, in England's front row, at the heart of the match and at the heart of the scrum—one of sport's most destructive, repetitive impacts. But the triumphs came at a cost. When rugby union turned professional, Steve was plunged into a game where raw power meant everything. Today, he remembers nothing about playing in that final. In his words, watching the tape back is like watching a ghost.

In early March 2020 Liverpool was two wins away from an extraordinary achievement, on course for its first league title win in 30 years - since the heady days of Kenny Dalglish - and likely to seal it in the Liverpool derby against its great rival Everton. And all this an incredible two months before the season was due to end. Then, as we all know, the season was postponed. The architect of the club's great resurgence - including its 2019 UEFA Champions League win - has been Jurgen Klopp....

My name is James Milner and I'm not a Ribena-holic. Let me share insights into what it's like being a professional footballer, across my different experiences with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and now Liverpool (not forgetting a six-match loan spell at Swindon). Plus my highs - and a few too many lows - playing for England. There isn't a current player who's been playing Premier League football as long as I have, and that gives me a pretty rare perspective into how the top-flight game has changed over the past 17 years.

Alejandro Valverde - the 'Green Bullet' - was a symbol of Spanish sport. Supremely talented, hard-working beyond belief, he was ranked no.1 in the world four times before retiring in 2022. He is a champion of undeniable charisma and immense achievement - and yet also a convicted doping cheat. Appearing in a list of encoded names, Valverde was one of many at the heart of a doping ring for elite sportsmen. Discovered by Spanish police in the infamous Operacion Puerto, the revelations contained in the operation threatened to rip cycling apart.

Through the prism of sport and conversations with its legends, including Usain Bolt, Adam Goodes, Thierry Henry, Michael Johnson, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Makhaya Ntini, Naomi Osaka and Hope Powell, Michael Holding explains how racism dehumanises people; how it works to achieve that end; how it has been ignored by history and historians; and what it is like to be treated differently just because of the colour of your skin.

Few people know the answers better than Emma Hayes. As the coach of Chelsea FC Women, she has led the club to 14 major trophies. She is a widely celebrated figure in sports media as a woman starting to get equal recognition in this space, and has been named TV pundit of the year by both Broadcast Magazine and the Sports Journalists Association. In this book, Emma shares her experience of managing a high-performance football team to draw out life lessons and techniques that listeners can apply to their own professional and personal circumstances.

On the afternoon of July 13, 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse.

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 12th man, captaincy, selection and more, this amusing and insightful collection will delight all cricket lovers.

In her 20s Rachel Kushner went to Mexico in pursuit of her first love - motorbikes - to compete in the notorious and deadly race, Cabo 1000. As fellow racers died on the roadside, bikes were stolen and friends abandoned one another in the heat of the chase, she crashed at 130mph and miraculously survived; soon after, she decided to leave her controlling boyfriend and manoeuvred her way into a freer new life.

Perry McCarthy is simply unique; he is an ex-Formula One racing driver and was 'The Stig’ from the world-wide BBC Top Gear TV show. Highly popular in the world of motor racing, The Telegraph headlined him as ‘a new cult hero’, The Times called him ‘the world’s unluckiest racing driver and America’s Sunday Express described him as a ‘comedian locked inside a racing driver's body’.

A hugely entertaining career autobiography from a true legend of Welsh rugby and a genuine cult figure. In rugby there are the Flash Harrys and the Glory Boys: the fly-halves who run, kick and dazzle; the scrum-halves who nip and dart; the wingers who step and glide. These are the players who get the crowd on their feet, who set stadiums abuzz. But they only get to do these things because other, less glorified figures do all of the donkey work. Adam Jones is one such figure.

Penguin Audio presents The Push by Tommy Caldwell, read by Johnathan McClain. A dramatic, inspiring memoir by legendary rock climber Tommy Caldwell, the first person to free climb the Dawn Wall of Yosemite's El Capitan. On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell, along with his partner, Kevin Jorgeson, summited what is widely regarded as the hardest climb in history Yosemite's nearly vertical 3,000 foot Dawn Wall, after 19 days on the route. Caldwell's odds-defying feat was the culmination of an entire lifetime of pushing himself to his limits as an athlete.

In BIG DUNC: The Upfront Autobiography, Duncan reveals, for the first time, the full story: the truth about his experiences in prison, his battle with alcoholism, his partying with African princes and Liverpool gangsters, his fighting with burglars, his going bankrupt, and how he turned his life around through his beloved Everton F.C.

The Champ: Terry Downes - known as 'The Paddington Express' - was a world champion boxer, US Marine, gangsters' favourite and latter-day film star and businessman. The Chump: James McNicholas' PE teacher once told him he was so unfit he'd be dead by the time he was 23. James has spent his life pursuing a career in acting and comedy. In reality, that has meant spells working as a painter-decorator and river cruise salesperson. After Terry's death, James finds himself in reflective mood, comparing how he's doing in life to how his grandad was at that age.

For 60 minutes this summer, the British public stopped what they were doing, switched on their radios and their TVs, refreshed their Twitter feeds, and followed Bradley Wiggins' attempt to break one of sport's most gruelling records: The Hour. The premise is simple enough: how far can you cycle in one hour? But it is thought to be one of the toughest events an athlete can endure, both physically and psychologically. Eddy Merckx, cycling's über-champ, called it the hardest thing he ever did.

In 2018, Luka Modric made football history with an unprecedented feat - winning all four of the most prestigious football awards in the same year: the Golden Ball at the World Cup in Russia, FIFA’s The Best Men's Player, UEFA Men’s Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or. The same year, as the team captain he led Croatia to the silver medal at the World Cup. Globally renowned as a visionary playmaker and midfield maestro, Luka Modric was born with the ambition to prove himself and to lead.

Ooh, ah, Ray Parlour! Nicknamed the Romford Pele for his solid but unglamorous image, Ray Parlour is one of the most well-loved Arsenal players of the last few decades. A loyal club servant for over 14 years (1992-2007), he is revered among the Arsenal faithful for his down-to-earth Essex charm, his mischievous sense of humour and his hardworking performances on the pitch.

November 1958: the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Into the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and tradition comes the most unlikely of horses - a drab white former plow horse named Snowman - and his rider, Harry de Leyer. They were the longest of all longshots - and their win was the stuff of legend.

"I can lick any son of a bitch in the world." So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sports for more than a decade and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, a big mouth, and even bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry.