Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2001-03-15
Dewey code: 796
RRP: £5.99
Price: £49.99
Review Nigel Benn / Blake Publishing:
Publication date: 2001-08-16
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.50
Review Shane Warne: My Autobiography / Hodder & Stoughton Audio Books:In My Autobiography, Aussie leg-spin maestro Shane Warne, perhaps the outstanding cricketer of his generation-and one of the most consistently newsworthy characters in sport-takes stock of a phenomenally successful career, and gives his account of the scandals and controversies that have sent the media into spasms of delighted indignation. From his days as a frustrated teenage wannabe Aussie Rules star, who decided he might as well try his hand at cricket, Warne has almost single-handedly taken the gentle, studious art of spin-bowling and turned it into a thrilling gladiatorial spectacle-on the way gathering career stats that rank him in company with the game's all-time elite. Warne crashed into the world spotlight in 1993, when his first-ever ball in Ashes cricket made seasoned England star Mike Gatting look like a floundering buffoon: In the second or so it took to leave my hand, swerve to pitch outside leg stump, fizz past the batsmen's lunge forward and clip off stump, my life did change. Ian Botham said he hadn't seen the same look of wide-eyed horror on Gatting's face since somebody had stolen his lunch a few years before. And he has hardly looked back since-on the pitch at least. Outside the boundary rope it has been a different, though no less sensational story. The media has revelled in tales of extra-marital phone-sex, match-fixing controversies, and bust-ups with the game's authorities and fellow professionals-sparking endless nonsensical speculation as to whether this hard-drinking, smoking "yobbo" was too fat, too loud, too arrogant or just plain too much for cricket to take. This is a candid chronicle of his side of the story, and along the way there are some wonderful revelations about the mysteries of spin-bowling, the professional art of "sledging", and a fascinating insider account of Australia's rise to world dominance. [+]A frank observer of others; an insightful assessor of his own achievements and motivations-and rarely descending into bland PR-consciousness-The King Of Spin has once again confounded all expectations and served up a peach. -Alex Hankin.
Publication date: 2001-05-01
Dewey code: 796.8309
Price: £27.95
Review Bare Fists: The History of Bare-Knuckle Prize-Fighting / Overlook Press:
Publication date: 2001-09
Dewey code: 796.342092273
RRP: £11.50
Price: £22.01
Review Venus and Serena Williams: Grand Slam Sisters (Sports Achievers Biographies) / LernerSports:
Publication date: 2002-06-27
RRP: £17.99
Price: £10.00
Review Uncovered: The Autobiography of Pat Cash / Greenwater Publishing:
Publication date: 2003-05-01
Dewey code: 796.80922
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.55
Review The Gracie Way: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Martial Arts Family (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Series) / Invisible Cities Press,US:
Publication date: 2007-09-03
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £10.99
Price: £4.53
Review Against the Flow: The Inspiring Story of a Teacher Turned Record-Breaking Yachtswoman / A & C Black Publishers Ltd:
Authors
- Sally Gunnell
- Christopher Priest
RRP: £14.99
Price: £1.88
Review Running Tall / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC:
Publication date: 2008-05-23
Dewey code: 011
RRP: £17.99
Price: £15.37
Review Billiards and Snooker Compendium, A / Unknown:
Publication date: 2006-11-03
Dewey code: 796.83092
RRP: £16.99
Price: £4.12
Review Ali Rap (Klotz) / Taschen GmbH:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2002-05-06
RRP: £7.99
Price: £0.49
Review The Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC:Burns' brilliant insight into the life of arguably the game's greatest-ever talent is a daring and painstakingly researched piece of journalism that transcends being categorised as a sports book just as Maradona himself was more than simply a gifted footballer. The author's intention was not merely to further eulogise the man's genius on the field but to explore the entire Maradona phenomenon. Burns entered into the murky world which the Argentinian had allowed to be built around him. At some risk to himself he investigated the parasitic influences that accompanied Maradona through his successes and that were complicit in the player's fall from grace. The tale is of course punctuated with acknowledgement of the exquisite skills, the power and courage that demanded hysterical affection wherever he played and led England's World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey to rate Maradona as more accomplished even than Pelé. That accolade came after the goal-against England in Mexico '86-to which the title owes its existence. Brimming with background information about the young Diego and peppered with all the incident and colour that was to follow in Barcelona and Naples, Burns' offering is an essential read. -Jamie Foulerton.
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2000-08-31
Price: £6.99
Review John Barnes: The Autobiography / Headline Book Publishing:John Barnes : The Autobiography: A title with a lot to live up to-much like the player's career itself. From the moment he scored his fantastic goal in the Maracana in Rio versus Brazil in 1984, the pressure was always on Barnes to scale every peak in the game and to do so in a similarly electrifying style. More than a decade and a half later, the abiding memory of the player in the eyes of many football fans is of John Barnes the enigma, the man of great talent who could never quite produce the very best on the big occasion, particularly in an England shirt. Yet to fail to look past this would be to misjudge the man and to overlook his achievements directly inside the game and on a broader scale. With the help of Daily Telegraph football writer Henry Winter, Barnes tells the whole story from his point of view and is not afraid to touch on some of the wider issues that involved him during his playing career. And that is where the interest lies. In the desire to pigeon-hole, it is easily forgotten that Barnes was one of the key members of arguably the greatest British club side of all time. Or that he was involved at Hillsborough on the day when so many tragically lost their lives. Or that he was one of the first extremely high-profile black players in this country and faced torrents of unacceptable racial abuse within the game for many years, yet has emerged with dignity in tact. Barnes it is clear has much about which to offer his thoughts, which are very perceptive and clearly put, and that is the attraction of his book. [+]At a time when the sport is ridden with so many clichés, John Barnes offers up some clear thinking. While his playing career did not always manage to satisfy everyone, those awaiting an interesting perspective on football in the 80s and 90s will not be disappointed. -Trevor Crowe.
Creator: Wendy Freudenberg
Publication date: 2006-11-13
RRP: £18.75
Price: £17.81
Review Les Graham - A Life in Racing / Charlton Publications:
Publication date: 2006-09-01
Dewey code: 796.3340922411
RRP: £18.99
Price: £3.54
Review If You're Second You Are Nothing: Ferguson and Shankly / Macmillan:
Creator: Karl Kling
Publication date: 1999-09-20
Dewey code: 796.72092
RRP: £3.99
Price: £3.03
Review Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master (Karl Ludvigsen Racer Biographies) / J H Haynes & Co Ltd:
Authors
- Jacques Vassal
- Pierre Menard
Dewey code: 796.72092
RRP: £16.99
Price: £23.22
Review Stirling Moss: The Champion Without Crown (Formula 1 Legends) / Chronosports:
Edition: 2Rev Ed
Publication date: 2003-12-02
Dewey code: 629
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.71
Review Michael Schumacher: The Greatest of All? / J H Haynes & Co Ltd:
Creator: John Kruk
Publication date: 2008-03-04
Dewey code: 796.357092
RRP: £12.72
Price: £7.41
Review The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made It to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors / Ballantine Books:
Publication date: 2001-10-18
Dewey code: 796
Price: £16.99
Review The Real McRae / Ebury Press:
Publication date: 1999-04-08
Dewey code: 796.334092
RRP: £7.99
Price: £1.98
Review Hoolifan: 30 Years of Hurt / Mainstream Publishing:Martin King first went to see a football match in the early 1960s at White Hart Lane. Immediately hooked, he soon became an avid Chelsea fan, or as the title of his book suggests, a Hoolifan, as over the years he became one of Chelsea's "top boys", a ringleader in orchestrating the violence on the terraces and city streets which made Chelsea so notorious throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. This is a tough and compelling account of how, according to King, football violence was and always has been, part of the fabric of male, working-class life. Page after page describes the adventures of King and the Chelsea fans as they follow Chelsea across the country, taking "ends" (the area of the ground usually reserved exclusively for the home team's fans) and engaging in organised fights, often on a terrifying and brutal scale. There are some wonderful sections on the vagaries of football fashion throughout the 70s and 80s and the cameraderie which unites the guild-like groups of fans is evoked with great skill. But King is often too quick to hide behind claims that innocents were never hurt in the violence he actively pursued and that the media has blown the problem out of all proportion. Nevertheless Hoolifan raises some uneasy and still unresolved questions about the nature of football violence. -Jerry Brotton.
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Nigel Benn, Shane Warne: My Autobiography, Bare Fists: The History of Bare-Knuckle Prize-Fighting, Venus and Serena Williams: Grand Slam Sisters (Sports Achievers Biographies), Uncovered: The Autobiography of Pat Cash, The Gracie Way: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Martial Arts Family (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Series), Against the Flow: The Inspiring Story of a Teacher Turned Record-Breaking Yachtswoman, Running Tall, Billiards and Snooker Compendium, A, Ali Rap (Klotz), The Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona, John Barnes: The Autobiography, Les Graham - A Life in Racing, If You're Second You Are Nothing: Ferguson and Shankly, Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master (Karl Ludvigsen Racer Biographies), Stirling Moss: The Champion Without Crown (Formula 1 Legends), Michael Schumacher: The Greatest of All?, The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made It to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors, The Real McRae, Hoolifan: 30 Years of Hurt |
