Sportsbiografier

A 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run make up the Ironman triathlon. So what possesses an overweight, thirty-something librarian who can't swim, doesn't own a bike and has two dodgy knees to take on the hardest one-day endurance race in the world? The inspirational, epic and life-changing journey from ordinary bloke to Ironman.

The author is considered to be one of the greatest darts player of all time. This work reveals how darts proved a salvation from his early life as a cat burglar, shoplifter and thug, introducing him to a new world of beer, babes and undreamed of success.

And he tells the full inside story of the managers he has worked with, the glory goals that have clinched SPL titles and UEFA Cup glory, the fall-outs and the controversy as well as revealing for the first time the shocking stories behind life in Glasgow as one of the few players to have split the football-mad city in two.

'Steve is a British sport icon. He is an inspiration to a whole generation of future sporting stars.' Lewis Hamilton

Follows the journey of Phil Jackson to the top of basketball's coaching hierarchy.

A classic mountaineering memoir by one of the UK's foremost female climbers. 'A story of climbing and compulsive love of mountains ... magnificent' OBSERVER

Ralph Milne was born in Dundee and lived out many a young footballer's dream. On leaving school he signed for Dundee United and gradually forced his way into a team full of great players. In the eyes of Dundee United fans he will always be a legend and was inducted into the club's Hall Of Fame earlier this year.

Floyd Patterson delivered a number of knockout punches during his Hall of Fame career, but it might have been the fights he won beyond the boxing ring that made him great. This biography covers Patterson's meteoric rise as boxer while giving equal attention to the boxer's life away from sport.

Through the figure of Harry Hooper (1887-1974), star of four World Series championship teams and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Paul Zingg describes baseball's transformation from an often rowdy spectacle to a respectable career choice and entertainment institution. Zingg chronicles Hooper's rise from a sharecropper background in California to college and then to the pinnacle of his sport. Boston's lead-off hitter and right fielder from 1909 to 1920, Hooper later played for the Chicago White Sox, managed in the Pacific Coast League, and coached Princeton's team. When he retired in 1925, he held every major fielding record for an American League right fielder. Hooper's diaries, memoirs, and six decades of letters offer a rich and colorful commentary on the evolution of the game, as well as insight into the tensions between a player's public and private lives.

Before the Super Bowl, before Monday Night Football, even before the NFL, there was Red Grange. This title depicts the career of this soft spoken pioneer who helped lift pro football above its reputation as a dirty little business run by rogues and bargain-basement entrepreneurs.

The amazing story of one of Scotland's most treasured football players

A case study of college football. It looks at the birth of bigtime college sport, showing how gridiron glory and scandal were prefigured in Chicago's football industry of the early twentieth century, presided over by the brilliant, combative, saintly, but very human Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Presents a behind-the-scenes look at international rugby at the height of a golden period. This title features true rugby tales from the days when men played purely for the love of the game and of their nation, and when multimillion-pound contracts and sponsorship deals were unheard of.

The author has been one of Ireland's leading hurlers for the past decade, winning five Munster titles and three All-Ireland medals with Cork, and establishing himself as one of the game's most compelling and articulate figures. In this book, he tells the story of his life and career.

Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18,000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure. This is the story of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today.

Inspirational book from Sebastian Coe, one of the UK's great sporting champions

Fabio Capello is a born winner. As a midfielder with Roma, Juventus and Milan, he won four Italian league championships and two cups, and played for his country 32 times, scoring a goal at Wembley in 1973 in Italy's first ever win in England. This title tells the story of his remarkable career, and life.

An English and updated version of Hanner Amser, published in 2008. Nigel Owens is a familiar figure on stage and television, and is considered one of the best rugby referees in the world. But before reaching his current status in the world of professional rugby, he went through an excruciating personal crisis. A hardback version is also available. Reprint.

Bahrami also talks about his friendships with some of the great tennis players - Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, Henri Leconte - and many others. Inspirational, funny and truly original, this is much more than a sports autobiography. It is the story of one man''s success against all the odds, set against the backdrop of a country in the midst of revolution and war. But, above all, it is Mansour Bahrami''s undiminished passion for tennis and his amazing adventures on and off the court which make this book an exceptional read.

Walter LaFeber's timely analysis looks at the ways that triumphant capitalism, coupled with high-tech telecommunications, is conquering the nations of the world, one mind-one pair of feet-at a time.

Everyone knows the story of Mike Tyson's decline and fall, but what happened to the men he defeated during his irrepressible prime? This title deals with these men, tracing their lives from their upbringings and years of promise to their encounters with Tyson. It explores the pain they felt in defeat and their subsequent search for self-respect.

Everybody in the unlicensed fight game knows that only one man has the honour of being titled 'Guv'nor' - and that man is Lew 'Wild Thing' Yates.

In 1997, Andy Cave returned from the Himalayas, having climbed the stupendous north face of Changabang but losing his friend and climbing partner in the process. He vividly recreates the joy and despair of climbing, building the book to a desperate finale that lays bare the fragility of our carefully constructed convictions.

The book that inspired the major motion picture.

As a teenager, Cox dreamed of sporting immortality. Perhaps it was turning thirty, perhaps it was having his first hole in one, but he decided it was time to start again, to live the dream for real. So he switched off his computer, grabbed his checked trouser and headed for the golf course.

Idealistic, passionate and scientific, Arsene Wenger led the modernisation of English football. A star-maker who identifies and nurtures talent, he also opened the door for foreign coaches like Houllier, Eriksson, Ranieri and Mourinho. This book tracks the highs and lows of his decade at Arsenal, his teams, his methods, his successes and failures.

The second volume of the most sought-after sports book of all time now available from Headline

In 1928 two extraordinary Englishmen competed in an unprecedented event - a transcontinental road race across America that required them to run an average of 40 miles for 80 consecutive days.

The author has been one of Britain's finest football commentators. After joining the BBC in 1969, he established himself as one of our foremost commentators. This autobiography offers his perspective on his life and career.