Difference between revisions of "Newest Sport Reviews"

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[[Category:Sport|*]]
 
[[Category:Sport|*]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dave Roberts
+
|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
|title=Home and Away
+
|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
 +
|author=John Hurst
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Sport
+
|genre=Art
|summary= For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is, teams who play outside the top four divisions of English football) are like a distant relative fallen on hard times; you're vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Apart from a few weeks in early January, when the odd non-league club reaches the third round of the FA cup and embarks on a spot of giant killing, the lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football. In Home and Away, Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/2016 season.
+
|summary=It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>059307680X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher McGrath
+
|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport
|title=Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
+
|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
 +
|author=Rachel Ignotofsky
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848549830</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrea Mills
 
|title=Top Of The League
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed this.  I would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker album.  There was even the halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the title.  As I have grown older, my cynicism has grown too. Leicester may be champions, but the day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for the everyman, will be a sad one. Perhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today?  ''Top Of the League'' certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the ball they call foot.
+
|summary=''Women in Sport'' is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784934577</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Julia Bradbury
+
|isbn=Burrell_12
|title=Unforgettable Walks
+
|title=Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records
 +
|author=Stuart Burrell
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=Sport
|summary=I've long been a fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the news that there would shortly be another series of programmes ''and'' a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the South Downs and the Peak District. Unless you're in Scotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, with a good spread around all points of the compass.
+
|summary=The first of Stuart Burrell's world records, well, the first two, actually, as he's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accident. There had been a plan to raise some money for the Children in Need Charity and quite late on the people who were to have been the main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales and cake bakes, but Burrell had made a hobby of escapology and idea of a sponsored escape had life breathed into it. On 3 November 2002, he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 was raised for Children in Need.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784298840</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Guy Martin
+
|isbn=Landreth_Swell
|title= When You Dead, You Dead
+
|title=Swell
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Jenny Landreth
|genre= Autobiography
+
|rating=5
|summary= It's a little depressing when a 34 year old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which we he will be most well-known.
+
|genre=Sport
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556669</amazonuk>
+
|summary=I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own.  This is more than just (I say ''just''!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious.  Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurd. Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case, I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles-on-the-commute funny''.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=A P McCoy
+
|isbn=Oakeshott_Derby
|title=Winner: My Racing Life
+
|title=A Guide to the Classics: Or How to Pick the Derby Winner
 +
|author=Guy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=In any walk of life there are people who are universally known by their first names alone.  In  flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt you need say no more than 'A.P.'  Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy.  He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beaten.  In fact, it's tempting to say that it will ''never'' be beaten.  He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times.  Unusually for a jockey he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Year.  He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409162397</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anna Krien
 
|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose?  What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas.  In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people.  It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities.
+
|summary=It's not often that you get a glimpse into the personal, youthful interests of one of the greatest Conservative philosophers of the twentieth century, but ''A Guide to the Classics'' co-authored by Michael Oakeshott is a light-hearted look at how to pick the Derby winner. Originally written in 1936 it is, amazingly, as relevant today as it was then. In fact, the techniques and analysis employed by the authors were way ahead of their time and have only come into general use relatively recently.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100033</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jeff Scott
+
|isbn=Gibbons_Game
|title=Born to Rumble
+
|title=The Beautiful Game
 +
|author=Alan Gibbons
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=''Rumble''. It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of a noise like thunder (or even of a motorcycle engine) ''and'' of a street fight between rival gangs.  Author Jeff Scott has picked the perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the combination of brakeless bikes, adrenalin, ridiculous speeds and not a lot of space explode into confrontation on or off the track. It's hardly surprising that it happens - in fact it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often given the competitive nature of the sport and the diva-like qualities of some of the top riders.
+
|summary=Football is all about its colours. And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear. But is that flame red? Blood red? The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making? And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days? There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956861849</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Red Szell
+
|isbn=Askwith_Today
|title=The Blind Man of Hoy: A True Story
+
|title=Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Richard Askwith
|genre=Autobiography
+
|rating=4
|summary=Redmond Széll was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) at age 19. It's now 26 years since he got the life-changing news. Although not completely sightless – he sees shadows and shapes – he is registered blind and walks with the stereotypical white stick. This hasn't stopped him from pursuing his hobby of rock-climbing, though, both indoors on climbing walls and on Britain's cliffs. The culmination of his climbing obsession came in 2013, when he became the first blind person to climb the Old Man of Hoy, the 449-foot cliff off the Orkney Islands of Scotland.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124222</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeff Scott and Rachael Adams
 
|title=Strictly Shale: Circling British Speedway
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=When I was young I remember Speedway being a regular item on Saturday sport programmes on television. My father was an aficionado and loved the noise, the risk and the sheer energy of the sport - my mother less so and she quoted the noise and the strong possibility of there being 'a nasty accident' when the riders slid their motorcycles sideways.  It is still on television but I'll confess to not having watched for many years and it was for this reason that Jeff Scott's ''Strictly Shale'' achieved the unusual feat of both being an eye opener and bringing back long-forgotten memories.
+
|summary=As a runner myself, I often look for sources of inspiration. Training is rewarding, but every so often a day comes along when I question whether it is all worth it or not. Zatopek proves that is, indeed, all worth it. He put copious amounts of effort into his training, and the number of races he won over his career as a professional athlete clearly shows the results of it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956861830</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Palmer
+
|isbn=Pavey_Mum
|title=Over The Line
+
|title=This Mum Runs
|rating=5
+
|author=Jo Pavey
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=Jack Cock made his debut as a professional footballer for Huddersfield Town and that fragile dream of playing for his country came just a little bit closer, but this was just before the beginning of the First World War, when there was immense pressure on young men to do the honourable thing and join the war to fight in France.  ''Over the Line'' is the story of Jack's war, of joining the Footballers' Battalion, playing in the Flanders Cup, fighting in the trenches and not just surviving but being decorated for bravery.  After the war he scored England's first international goal and was one of the first of the modern generation of 'professional footballers'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781123934</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Slow Getting Up
 
|author=Nate Jackson
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Sporting autobiographies are often written by those sports men and women who made it to the very pinnacle of their profession.  Their stories surround past glories and how they lifted themselves up above the great to become the very best.  However, for every superstar footballer or tennis player, there needs to be a lot more average Joes and Joettes for them to shine against.  And who is to say that being an average player in a professional league is not an achievement in itself?  Nate Jackson was one such ‘average’ player in the NFL – but would you call him that to his face?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00IO19CYW</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adam Ruck
 
|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is the way to instantly acquire all the knowledge which you need to pass as an expert in the ''arcane and labyrinthine'' world of golf.  There's quite a bit there that I'd agree on - the rules (and to an unfortunate extent the ''attitudes'') are arcane and they seem to take a lifetime to master, but there's a surprising amount of information tucked away inside this little book. What I might quibble with is whether or not you would ''pass as an expert'' (which suggests that you're something of a con man): there's enough detail here to give you a solid grounding without needing to bluff.
+
|summary=I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the roads for 50 miles a week, and spend much of my time searching for races to run all over the country. That is, until I wound up with a persistent sports injury, hung up my running shoes for nearly a year, and switched the road to the pool. At the time I thought nothing could alleviate the misery of not being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's autobiography, ''This Mum Runs'', to keep me company because the elite athlete’s account of the Olympics, injury, family, and life, in general, falls nothing short of inspirational.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909365327</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Boys In The Boat: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's Berlin
+
|isbn=Lee_Lean
|author=Daniel James Brown
+
|title=Lean Gains
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Jonathan S Lee
|genre=Biography
+
|rating=4
|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had to do was run fast.  Alright, he did have to face unknown hardship, heinous prejudice at home and abroad, and make sure he was fast enough to outdo the rest of his compatriots then the world's best to win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but others who wished to do the same had to do more.  People such as those rowers in the coxed eights squad – people such as young Joe Rantz.  He certainly had to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those in the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from the NW USA, and when he got to compete he had to use so many more muscles, and operate at varying tempi, with the temperament of the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakes.  Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, Joe's story is a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertaining.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Running Like A Girl
 
|author=Alexandra Heminsley
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Running is awful. So starts Heminsley's book about running.
+
|summary=I don't often begin a book by telling you what it ''isn't'' but in this case I think it's important. If you're a fairly sedentary person or a casual sportsman or woman looking to shed a few pounds then you won't get the best out of this book.  You'll find some good advice about diet but I'm afraid that much of it is going to go over your head.  Of course you could always take up a sport seriously...  On the other hand, if you ''are'' a serious sportsman then you could find that the advice in ''Lean Gains'' could lift you up to the next level of performance.
 
 
And she's not wrong.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558955</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Who Invented The Stepover? (And Other Crucial Football Conundrums)
+
|isbn=Long_Mock
|author=Paul Simpson and Uli Hesse
+
|title=The Mock Olympian
 +
|author=Michael Long
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=In 1982, second division Charlton Athletic staged an unlikely transfer coup by signing former European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen. If the thought of the Danish superstar forsaking the glamour of Barcelona for south east London seemed unlikely then consider that Simonsen had previously faked his own death during a World Cup qualifier.
+
|summary=It started with an idle conversation just before the 2012 London Olympics: Michael Long's friend Sarah gave him a book as part of his birthday present. It was Time Out's guide to the history of the Olympics and it covered each of the summer Olympics in chronological order from the inaugural games in Athens in 1896. Sarah's boyfriend James commented that with all the running Michael did, he'd probably have run in most of the Olympic cities. Although Long had done a goodly number of runs, bike rides and triathlons he'd only competed in two of the twenty-three cities - London and Athens. Now most of us would have left it at that, but that's not the Michael Long you're going to come to know and love. He saw it as a challenge and what's more, he blogged about it and then wrote this book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250065</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Harry Redknapp
+
|isbn=Roberts_Home
|title=Harry: My Autobiography
+
|title=Home and Away
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Dave Roberts
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Everybody with an interest in football knows who ''Harry'' is.  The cover of his book won't tell you who he is, but if you're not in the know it's Harry Redknapp - football manager and for many of us, something of a national treasure. He's the manager who's seen it all, having started at rock bottom - a 70s Portakabin at Oxford City  - and risen to the heights of managing Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership. At the same time he was the popular choice for the England Manager's job when Capello threw in the towel.  It's fair to say that Harry has lived his football life to the full and anyone buying this book will get their money's worth.
+
|summary=For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is, teams who play outside the top four divisions of English football) are like a distant relative fallen on hard times; you're vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Apart from a few weeks in early January, when the odd non-league club reaches the third round of the FA cup and embarks on a spot of giant-killing, the lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football. In ''Home and Away'', Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/2016 season.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091917875</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jim White
+
|isbn=Mcgrath_Darley
|title=Premier League: A History in 10 Matches
+
|title=Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Christopher McGrath
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=I go back to the days when the pinnacle of footballing achievement was to be in Division 1, but the stadia and the stands were downmarket. Standing - pushing, shoving and fighting - was the norm and it wasn't the place for a family outing.  You could get into a match for less than a fiver and top footballers earned less than four times the average wage.  All that changed in 1993 with the birth of the Premier League.  This was the brainchild of - amongst others - [[:Category:Greg Dyke|Greg Dyke]] who saw the potential for turning football at the highest level into a business.  Twenty one years on the top footballers earn more than thirty five times the average wage.
+
|summary=All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781854300</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Twirlymen: The Unlikley History of Cricket's Greatest Spin Bowlers
+
|isbn=Mills_Top
|author=Amol Rajan
+
|title=Top Of The League
 +
|author=Andrea Mills
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Although they may lack the bang and bluster of the fast bowlers, the three leading wicket takers of all time in Test cricket are all spinnersThey may look calmer in their run ups and action, but the effect they put on the ball can be incredible.  Rather than blasting a batsman out, they bamboozle themThat's why Amol Rajan thinks them deserving of a book all of their own, and ''Twirlymen'' is the result of that belief.
+
|summary=Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed this.  I would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker album.  There was even the halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the title.  As I have grown older, my cynicism has grown tooLeicester may be champions, but the day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for the everyman, will be a sad onePerhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today?  ''Top Of the League'' certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the ball they call foot.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083252</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=John D Barrow
+
|isbn=Bradbury_Walks
|title=Mathletics
+
|title=Unforgettable Walks
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Julia Bradbury
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=As a sports fan and a maths teacher, I was thrilled to get the chance to read a book which claims to give us 'surprising and enlightening insights into the world of sports'. This is rather a frustrating read because it seems to have got the balance wrong in many cases. There are some chapters which are so short as to be barely worth reading – one merely points out that while humans can’t run as fast as cheetahs or perform gymnastics as amazing as that of a monkey, we’re better all-rounders than any other animal. This is true, but hardly seems worth wasting a page on, it’s so obvious. Then there are other chapters, like the interesting one detailing the points scoring system in the decathlon, which are good but could have been much better given more space. The decathlon one is a prime example of this – it’s five pages, so one of the book’s longer sections, but could surely have been excellent if it had gone into more detail. I can’t help thinking that dropping half of the sections and doubling the other half in length might have been the way to go here.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099584239</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gavin Mortimer
 
|title=A History of Cricket in 100 Objects
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=[[A History of Football in 100 Objects by Gavin Mortimer|A History of Football in 100 Objects]] was a brave attempt, but was slightly let down by being a little too clinical. Being a game imbued with passion, the book lacked this which took some of the edge off it.  Cricket, whilst inspiring passion amongst devotees, has a slightly more laid back following; one that may work better in this format.  That said, being a game that has been played for five centuries, narrowing it down to just 100 objects is no less an undertaking than for football.
+
|summary=I've long been a fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the news that there would shortly be another series of programmes and a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the South Downs and the Peak District. Unless you're in Scotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, with a good spread around all points of the compass.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689406</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Stephen Roche
+
|isbn=Martin_When
|title=Born to Ride: The Autobiography of Stephen Roche
+
|title=When You Dead, You Dead
|rating=4
+
|author=Guy Martin
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=With all the revelations about the systemised doping culture surrounding Lance Armstrong's team in the 1990s, it was interesting to read a story of a time before cycling was embroiled in one drugs scandal after another.  Although perhaps not as memorable as Armstrong's career, Stephen Roche's will hold a place in cycling history for 1987, when he became only the second man to win the Tour de France, the Giro D'Italia and the World Championships in the same season.  A quarter of a century after that remarkable feat, Roche has produced his autobiography, ''Born to Ride''.
+
|summary=It's a little depressing when a 34-year-old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which he will be most well-known. As an F1 widow to a boy who likes all things fast, I thought he might like this book and so, perhaps unusually, I chose it with someone else in mind but made myself read it first.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091905</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Gavin Mortimer
+
|isbn=Mccoy_Winner
|title=A History of Football in 100 Objects
+
|title=Winner: My Racing Life
 +
|author=A P McCoy
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Given how long it's been played and how many books have been written about it, any new history of football needs to have some kind of hook to make it stand outGavin Mortimer may have found that, by presenting his history as ''A History of Football in 100 Objects''.  This prompts the question as to whether the whole of football could be reduced down to a mere century of objectsBut then, if [[From 0 to Infinity in 26 Centuries by Chris Waring]] can make a history of maths worth reading, I guess anything is possible.
+
|summary=In any walk of life, there are people who are universally known by their first names alone.  In flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt, you need to say no more than 'A.P.'  Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy.  He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beatenIn fact, it's tempting to say that it will ''never'' be beatenHe's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times.  Unusually for a jockey, he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the YearHe achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250618</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Martin Kelner
+
|isbn=Krien_Night
|title=Sit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV
+
|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport
|rating=4
+
|author=Anna Krien
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=Like many English sports fans, the majority of the calories I burn are used up by shouting at the TV and occasionally going to the shops for more beer and crisps.  Sports books tend to be about the sport itself or biographies of those who expended great effort to reach the top of their chosen sport.  But in Martin Kelner's 'Sit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV', there is finally a book for the less energetic among us.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140812923X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clare Balding
 
|title=My Animals and Other Family
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Clare Balding was born into a racing family - her father, Ian, was the trainer of Mill Reef who won the Derby in 1971, the same year that Clare was born.  Whilst her father would never forget the year that his horse won the Derby he would usually fail to remember that it was also the year of his daughter's birth. Horses came first and they were the priority in Ian Balding's life: the family had to adjust accordingly. He was a gifted and successful trainer who understood the animals in his care and his record, including Mill Reef's Derby success speaks for itself.  Clare's childhood was separate from the life of the racing stable but she inherited her family's love of animals.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921467</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Richard Fitzpatrick
 
|title=El Clasico - Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Nothing divides opinion quite like football and no-one expresses their joy and disappointment like football fans. For many fans, the most important matches of their entire season are the ones against their local rivals; the derby matches. English football has a number of these, but only the matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain have elevated themselves above mere derby status and earned their own name: ''El Clásico'' – the Classic.
+
|summary=Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity, she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin Dyer' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408158795</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=The Secret Footballer
+
|isbn=Scott_Born
|title=I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting The Lid On The Beautiful Game
+
|title=Born to Rumble
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Jeff Scott
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=In the 2012 Olympic Games the UK delighted in the skills shown by our athletes.  We were - naturally - pleased by the medals, but what impressed was the training and dedication of people who were frequently fitting what they did around the day job or study.  For the most part they weren't reaping much in the way of financial rewards from what they did - but they shone.  The exceptions were the footballers.  I forget (and that might well be Freudian) ''exactly'' who beat us, but I doubt that there are many people pleased by the show they made.  It's now the beginning of the Premier League season and ''I Am the Secret Footballer'' has arrived at the perfect moment.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852653085</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Tyers and Beach
 
|title=I Kick Therefore I am: The Little Book of Premier League Wisdom
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=You remember Ronnie Matthews, don't you? He's the footballer who celebrated his one – and so far, only – international match by booing his way through the Faroe Islands' national anthem, then getting a red card for chatting up the lineswoman.  He still thinks he contributed well to a vital friendly, however.  He's the player whose career in piddling his way through continuously lesser and lesser clubs for far too long has only been matched in the recent game by Steve Claridge.  And still he's bucking the trend – he's the only author smart enough to realise that four-hundred page, ghost-written biogs are unnecessary, for he's crammed all his life, career, philosophy and response to Twitter into an hour's read.
+
|summary=''Rumble''. It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of a noise like thunder (or even of a motorcycle engine) ''and'' of a street fight between rival gangs.  Author Jeff Scott has picked the perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the combination of brakeless bikes, adrenalin, ridiculous speeds and not a lot of space explode into a confrontation on or off the trackIt's hardly surprising that it happens - in fact, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often given the competitive nature of the sport and the diva-like qualities of some of the top riders.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408832763</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Leo McKinstry
 
|title=Jack Hobbs: England's Greatest Cricketer
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=Back in the early 1920s, there were only three Test cricket playing nations; England, Australia and South Africa.  In the summer of 2012, both nations have been on tour; Australia recently beaten comprehensively at one day cricket and South Africa about to start a test series to determine the best Test nation in the worldGiven that history is repeating itself, it seems appropriate that a new biography of Jack Hobbs, England's greatest run scorer and a man who repeatedly blunted the bowling attacks of both nations, should become available now.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083309</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Beth Raymer
 
|title=Lay the Favourite: A True Story about Playing to Win in the Gambling Underworld
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It was a dream which brought Beth Raymer to Las Vegas, but the reality was that she ended up waiting tables in a low-end diner and living in a distinctly unsavoury motel.  A chance meeting brought her into contact with Dink, the self-styled king of the city's sports betting and she moved into what was very much a man's world - of high-stakes gambling and a lot of people you wouldn't necessarily want your daughter to know.  This is the story of how Beth learned the trade and moved into the world of the big money where gambling regulations don't apply.  Being sharp was what it was all about.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555395</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Teens Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 14:58, 1 September 2020

Hurst Norfolk.jpg

Review of

On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks by John Hurst

4star.jpg Art

It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks and I couldn't resist buying it. Full Review

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Review of

Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Women in Sport is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait. Full Review

Burrell 12.jpg

Review of

Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records by Stuart Burrell

4star.jpg Sport

The first of Stuart Burrell's world records, well, the first two, actually, as he's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accident. There had been a plan to raise some money for the Children in Need Charity and quite late on the people who were to have been the main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales and cake bakes, but Burrell had made a hobby of escapology and idea of a sponsored escape had life breathed into it. On 3 November 2002, he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 was raised for Children in Need. Full Review

Landreth Swell.jpg

Review of

Swell by Jenny Landreth

5star.jpg Sport

I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say just!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurd. Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case, I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's giggles-on-the-commute funny. Full Review

Oakeshott Derby.jpg

Review of

A Guide to the Classics: Or How to Pick the Derby Winner by Guy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott

4star.jpg Sport

It's not often that you get a glimpse into the personal, youthful interests of one of the greatest Conservative philosophers of the twentieth century, but A Guide to the Classics co-authored by Michael Oakeshott is a light-hearted look at how to pick the Derby winner. Originally written in 1936 it is, amazingly, as relevant today as it was then. In fact, the techniques and analysis employed by the authors were way ahead of their time and have only come into general use relatively recently. Full Review

Gibbons Game.jpg

Review of

The Beautiful Game by Alan Gibbons

4star.jpg Sport

Football is all about its colours. And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear. But is that flame red? Blood red? The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making? And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days? There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game… Full Review

Askwith Today.jpg

Review of

Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero by Richard Askwith

4star.jpg Sport

As a runner myself, I often look for sources of inspiration. Training is rewarding, but every so often a day comes along when I question whether it is all worth it or not. Zatopek proves that is, indeed, all worth it. He put copious amounts of effort into his training, and the number of races he won over his career as a professional athlete clearly shows the results of it. Full Review

Pavey Mum.jpg

Review of

This Mum Runs by Jo Pavey

4star.jpg Sport

I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the roads for 50 miles a week, and spend much of my time searching for races to run all over the country. That is, until I wound up with a persistent sports injury, hung up my running shoes for nearly a year, and switched the road to the pool. At the time I thought nothing could alleviate the misery of not being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's autobiography, This Mum Runs, to keep me company because the elite athlete’s account of the Olympics, injury, family, and life, in general, falls nothing short of inspirational. Full Review

Lee Lean.jpg

Review of

Lean Gains by Jonathan S Lee

4star.jpg Sport

I don't often begin a book by telling you what it isn't but in this case I think it's important. If you're a fairly sedentary person or a casual sportsman or woman looking to shed a few pounds then you won't get the best out of this book. You'll find some good advice about diet but I'm afraid that much of it is going to go over your head. Of course you could always take up a sport seriously... On the other hand, if you are a serious sportsman then you could find that the advice in Lean Gains could lift you up to the next level of performance. Full Review

Long Mock.jpg

Review of

The Mock Olympian by Michael Long

4star.jpg Sport

It started with an idle conversation just before the 2012 London Olympics: Michael Long's friend Sarah gave him a book as part of his birthday present. It was Time Out's guide to the history of the Olympics and it covered each of the summer Olympics in chronological order from the inaugural games in Athens in 1896. Sarah's boyfriend James commented that with all the running Michael did, he'd probably have run in most of the Olympic cities. Although Long had done a goodly number of runs, bike rides and triathlons he'd only competed in two of the twenty-three cities - London and Athens. Now most of us would have left it at that, but that's not the Michael Long you're going to come to know and love. He saw it as a challenge and what's more, he blogged about it and then wrote this book. Full Review

Roberts Home.jpg

Review of

Home and Away by Dave Roberts

4star.jpg Sport

For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is, teams who play outside the top four divisions of English football) are like a distant relative fallen on hard times; you're vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Apart from a few weeks in early January, when the odd non-league club reaches the third round of the FA cup and embarks on a spot of giant-killing, the lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football. In Home and Away, Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/2016 season. Full Review

Mcgrath Darley.jpg

Review of

Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses by Christopher McGrath

5star.jpg Sport

All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home. Full Review

Mills Top.jpg

Review of

Top Of The League by Andrea Mills

3.5star.jpg Sport

Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed this. I would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker album. There was even the halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the title. As I have grown older, my cynicism has grown too. Leicester may be champions, but the day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for the everyman, will be a sad one. Perhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today? Top Of the League certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the ball they call foot. Full Review

Bradbury Walks.jpg

Review of

Unforgettable Walks by Julia Bradbury

4star.jpg Sport

I've long been a fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the news that there would shortly be another series of programmes and a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the South Downs and the Peak District. Unless you're in Scotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, with a good spread around all points of the compass. Full Review

Martin When.jpg

Review of

When You Dead, You Dead by Guy Martin

4.5star.jpg Sport

It's a little depressing when a 34-year-old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which he will be most well-known. As an F1 widow to a boy who likes all things fast, I thought he might like this book and so, perhaps unusually, I chose it with someone else in mind but made myself read it first. Full Review

Mccoy Winner.jpg

Review of

Winner: My Racing Life by A P McCoy

4star.jpg Sport

In any walk of life, there are people who are universally known by their first names alone. In flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt, you need to say no more than 'A.P.' Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy. He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beaten. In fact, it's tempting to say that it will never be beaten. He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for a jockey, he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing. Full Review

Krien Night.jpg

Review of

Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport by Anna Krien

4.5star.jpg Sport

Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity, she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin Dyer' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities. Full Review

Scott Born.jpg

Review of

Born to Rumble by Jeff Scott

4star.jpg Sport

Rumble. It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of a noise like thunder (or even of a motorcycle engine) and of a street fight between rival gangs. Author Jeff Scott has picked the perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the combination of brakeless bikes, adrenalin, ridiculous speeds and not a lot of space explode into a confrontation on or off the track. It's hardly surprising that it happens - in fact, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often given the competitive nature of the sport and the diva-like qualities of some of the top riders. Full Review

Move on to Newest Teens Reviews