Difference between revisions of "Newest Sport Reviews"

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[[Category:Sport|*]]
 
[[Category:Sport|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]__NOTOC__  <!-- Remove -->
 
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{{Frontpage
==Sport==
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|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
__NOTOC__
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|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
{{newreview
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|author=John Hurst
|author=Matt Allen
+
|rating=4
|title=Where Are They Now? - Rediscovering Over 100 Football Stars of the 70s and 80s
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|genre=Art
|rating=4.5
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|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport
 +
|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
 +
|author=Rachel Ignotofsky
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Burrell_12
 +
|title=Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records
 +
|author=Stuart Burrell
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Sport
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Landreth_Swell
 +
|title=Swell
 +
|author=Jenny Landreth
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Sport
 +
|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''.
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}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Oakeshott_Derby
 +
|title=A Guide to the Classics: Or How to Pick the Derby Winner
 +
|author=Guy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Sport
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Gibbons_Game
 +
|title=The Beautiful Game
 +
|author=Alan Gibbons
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Sport
 +
|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…
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}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Askwith_Today
 +
|title=Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero
 +
|author=Richard Askwith
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=This looks like some people's worst idea of a book, ever. Trivia, nostalgia, football, and lists - does it get more masculine?  There's not a female in sight, either, as we get 101 portraits of footballers from times past, and most importantly, a summary of their career since hanging up the boots in the professional game.
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|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>1905156421</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Pavey_Mum
|author=Philippe Auclair
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|title=This Mum Runs
|title=Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King
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|author=Jo Pavey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Even though I'm not a Manchester United fan, Eric Cantona is one of my all time favourite players and I was really excited to get the opportunity to read a book which was billed as revealing his innermost thoughts, and being the definitive account of his career.
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|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>0230706347</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lee_Lean
|author=Ruth Merry and Steve Emecz 
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|title=Lean Gains
|title=Enabled: One Disabled Woman's Incredible Story of Tackling Her Disability in Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream
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|author=Jonathan S Lee
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Sport
|summary=Ruth Merry has never been your common-or-garden young ladyBorn with no ability to move her legs, and more, due to a condition called arthrogryposis, she still became an avid equestrian, downhill skier, competitive swimmer, fund-raiser and more.  At the beginning of this book a flippant comment inspires another, future dream - that of going down in a four-man bobsleigh.
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|summary=I don't often begin a book by telling you what it ''isn't'' but in this case I think it's importantIf 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312322</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Long_Mock
|author=Wendy Kendall
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|title=The Mock Olympian
|title=Wind Driven: Barbara Kendall's Story
+
|author=Michael Long
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Sport
|summary=Barbara Kendell is an extraordinary woman. She has not only won windsurfing medals at three Olympics, she is a mother, an IOC representative, public speaker and mentor. This biography, written by her sister, tells the inspiring story of an extraordinary woman who overcame her personal challenges and remains at the top of her sport after twenty years of competition.
+
|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>186979043X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Roberts_Home
 +
|title=Home and Away
 
|author=Dave Roberts
 
|author=Dave Roberts
|title=The Bromley Boys
+
|rating=4
|rating=4.5
+
|genre=Sport
|genre=Autobiography
+
|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=Most football fans (except my brother, who refuses to have anything to do with anything that has anything to do with the Arsenal) will have read ''Fever Pitch'' by Nick Hornby. It's the definitive book on what it's like to be a bloke who also supports a football team. It's also quite funny. It influenced every subsequent book about what it's like to be a football supporter. It also gave birth to a genre of writing that was subsequently termed 'lad lit'. Despite its imitators, nothing has been as good as ''Fever Pitch''. Until now.
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}}
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906032246</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Mcgrath_Darley
 +
|title=Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
 +
|author=Christopher McGrath
 +
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mills_Top
|author=Tim Harris
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|title=Top Of The League
|title=Sport: Almost Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
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|author=Andrea Mills
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=We all know oneSomeone who can tell you who was the last player to score a hat trick for Accrington Stanley away to Grimsby on a Wednesday night in JanuaryThis was just a random example, by the way, so please don't write in with the answerThe kind of person who is wonderful to have on your side at a Quiz Night, but who you don't really want to be getting into conversation with if you can avoid it.
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|summary=Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed thisI would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker albumThere 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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224080210</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Bradbury_Walks
|author=Rowan Simons
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|title=Unforgettable Walks
|title=Bamboo Goalposts
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|author=Julia Bradbury
|rating=4  
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=When it comes to football, I'm in agreement with the great Bill Shankly when he said: ''Football is not a matter of life and death, it's far more important than that''.  When it comes to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently about the earthquake, the Olympics and the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square and a love of the cuisine, or at least the version that comes from my local takeaway. Like many in the Western world, I have no concept of what life is truly like in China.
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|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>0230703720</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Martin_When
|author=George Plimpton 
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|title=When You Dead, You Dead
|title=Paper Lion
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|author=Guy Martin
|rating=4.5  
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Many a sports fan has dreamt of taking five wickets at Lord's or scoring the winning goal at the FA Cup Final at Wembley. For writer and American football aficionado George Plimpton that implausible fantasy became a reality.
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|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.
 
 
Despite being 36 years old and possessing precisely zero in footballing credentials, Plimpton was determined to find out what it would take to become a pro quarterback with one of America's premier clubs, the Detroit Lions. Paper Lion tells the story of his incredible adventure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1599210053</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mccoy_Winner
|author=Cristiano Ronaldo
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|title=Winner: My Racing Life
|title=Moments
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|author=A P McCoy
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=For football fans the name of Cristiano Ronaldo conjures images of Manchester United and the famous number 7 shirt worn by the likes of David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Bryan Robson and George Best in the pastOriginally thought of as nothing more than a nice face and hairstyle he's now proving himself to be a footballer of great talent and possibly even the best of his generation.  ''Moments'' is not an autobiography but a series of snapshots of his life.
+
|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.' McCoyHe'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 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>0330457705</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Krien_Night
|author=Renton Laidlaw
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|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport
|title=The R&A Golfer's Handbook
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|author=Anna Krien
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Renton Laidlaw, former golf correspondent of The ''Evening Standard'' and respected commentator has been editing ''The R & A Golfer's Handbook'' for ten years. It's a veritable brick of a book and provides intelligent reading for anyone who is serious about the game, be they enthusiastic spectator, dedicated amateur or professional. It's not a book to read through but one which will provide hours of browsing.
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|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>0230704492</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Scott_Born
|title=You'll Win Nothing With Kids
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|title=Born to Rumble
|author=Jim White
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|author=Jeff Scott
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|rating=4
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|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 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=Jim White has coached his son's football team for the past six years. He is that touchline wally. He is the man who makes you nudge your neighbour in the sparsely-populated stand, point him out and say "Watch him. Look at him now. Ha. Oh. Oh my lord. What's he doing?" That is Jim White. Father and son and football. They love it. They hate it. They obsess over it. They argue. It's probably the only time they exchange more than three words to one another in an entire week. It takes over the entire house. And now, it's even made it into a book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316029823</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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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

Ignotofsky Sport.jpg

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

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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

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Review of

Unforgettable Walks by Julia Bradbury

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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

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Review of

When You Dead, You Dead by Guy Martin

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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

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Review of

Winner: My Racing Life by A P McCoy

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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

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Review of

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

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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

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Review of

Born to Rumble by Jeff Scott

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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

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