Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Sports & Outdoors

This bumper collection of the funniest anecdotes, jokes and stories from cricket's best-loved personalities proves that cricket is a funny game—even when rain stops play! In this special audio edition, you can hear not only the most popular stories told by five of the game's all-time great characters—Richie Benaud, Dickie Bird, Henry Blofeld, Brian Johnston and Fred Trueman—but also the humour of famous cricketers such as Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff, Justin Langer, Shane Warne, and modern players including Jimmy Anderson, Joe Root and Ben Stokes.

Paris Fury is Tyson's rock, the wife he thanks for all his success. Both from Traveller families, she married him at 19 and is hands-on mother to their six children, as well as at his side through every fight. Always glamorous, strong, grounded and her own woman. When Tyson's struggles with depression, OCD and alcohol have threatened to overwhelm them, she has held them together and helped to see Tyson through to the greatest boxing victories. With all her warmth, humour and honesty, she tells her story.

The long-awaited final volume of the trilogy by Patrick Leigh Fermor. A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water were the first two volumes in a projected trilogy that would describe the walk that Patrick Leigh Fermor undertook at the age of 18 from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople.

Today was his first climb to the top. He knew if he was there, watching, then she would never leave him. Her name was Bernadette, and he climbed the shed every day. This is a not a football book, as such. Rather, it is a memoir by someone who happened to have superior ability at the sport during his formative years, which led him on a remarkable journey. Paul Ferris became a professional footballer and at the age of 16 was the youngest ever to play in Newcastle United's first team.

How to Win: Talent Alone Is Not Enough is much more than the story of a tournament. It is the distillation of a philosophy of leadership developed during a lifetime in high-performance environments, from the rugby field to the boardroom. Tapping in to his experience of winning the 2003 World Cup, being a part of the leadership team that delivered Olympic Success in 2012 and lessons drawn from Japan 2019, the author delivers a go-to manual in how to improve both individual and team performance in order to reach the pinnacle in sport and in business.   

Highlights of a career in cricket from Britain's favourite umpire.Hardly a week goes by without Dickie Bird visiting a county or Test match arena where he can keep up to date with all that is happening in the cricket world, while at the same time taking the opportunity to reflect, in the company of old friends and acquaintances, on his own colourful contribution to the sport that lasted for over half a century. Dickie remains the most famous umpire of them all and is still highly respected throughout the world.

Short daily reflections from one of the world's favourite adventurers. Best-selling author Bear Grylls has survived a free-fall parachute accident that left him with a broken back, possibly unable to walk again; falling down a mountain in the Rockies, severing a finger in the Vietnam jungle, a broken shoulder in Antarctica. He passed the gruelling training to join the SAS, crossed the North Atlantic in an open inflatable boat, and held the highest ever open-air formal dinner party, in a balloon at 25,000 feet.

Leaving her garden to the mercy of the slugs, award-winning writer Alys Fowler set out in an inflatable kayak to explore Birmingham's canal network, full of little-used waterways where huge pike skulk and kingfishers dart. Her book is about noticing the wild everywhere and what it means to see beauty where you least expect it. What happens when someone who has learned to observe her external world in such detail decides to examine her internal world with the same care?

4 August, 2012. Super Saturday. On the most electric night in the history of British sport, Mo Farah braved the pain and punishment to seize Olympic gold in the 10,000m - and in the process went from being a talented athlete to a national treasure. Seven days later, Mo seized his second gold at the 5000m to go where no British distance runner has gone before. Records have tumbled before him: European track records at 1500m, 5000m indoors, and 10,000m; British track records at 5000m, 3000m indoors...

Duncan Hamilton is already a multiple award-winning sports writer, but it is hard to imagine he will write a better book than this superb, elegiac portrait of the sociable, feted, but ultimately unknowable man who virtually invented modern sports writing.... Neville Cardus described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words. In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. 

Henry Blofeld's voice is the sound of the summer to thousands of cricket lovers all over the world, and this autobiographical book is a celebration of his career commentating on the sport he loves. Henry has been a summariser on Test Match Special for over 40 years, and cricket fans all over the world adore him. In this book he relives his favourite moments in the sport and shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories told in his unique style.

Born in the tough East End of Glasgow and married into one of the city's most notorious criminal families, Janey Godley's young life was far from ordinary. From the grim and far-from-swinging '60s, to the discos of the '70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which engulfed Glasgow's East End during the '80s, Janey was witness to an extraordinary underworld - as well as religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws. Throughout it all, her indomitable spirit - and her vivid sense of humour - kept her alive.

Rory Best is widely regarded as one of Ireland's greatest ever captains. Entrusted by Joe Schmidt to lead the side that looked on the wane following the 2015 World Cup, Best's inspirational leadership skills and abrasive qualities proved to be the foundation stones for the most successful period in Ireland's history.

Ray Mears is a household name through his television series Tracks, World of Survival, Bushcraft Survival, The Real Heroes of Telemark, and many more.

He is a private individual who shuns publicity whenever possible and would prefer to let his many skills tell their own tale - until now. In My Outdoor Life, Ray tells of his childhood and the formative years when he first developed a passion for both bushcraft and the martial arts skills that are central to his life.

Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world. But football is broken. Beneath the glamorous sheen of the Premier League, it's a game that's rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and other clubs clinging to survival. This isn't what football is about. Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level. Most of all, he's a fan. The People's Game is Gary's vision for a brighter future.

The '80s was a colourful period in English cricket. As a member of the most successful team in Essex's history and an England side capable of extraordinary highs and lows, Derek Pringle was lucky enough to be in the thick of it. Now, with the perspective of more than 20 years as a journalist, he lays bare the realities of life as a professional cricketer in a decade when the game was dominated by a cast of unforgettable characters whose exploits became front-page news.

An entertaining look at one of sport's greatest rivalries - the Ashes - by former England spin bowler Graeme Swann. Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England vs. Australia battles, having played in three series wins and also the whitewash defeat of 2013-14 when its intensity ended his international career.

For Michael Parkinson it was never really in doubt that he would spend his life in sport. His father, a fearsome fast bowler himself, indoctrinated young Michael from an early age into the Yorkshire cricket tradition and supporting Barnsley FC. All he ever wanted was to play cricket for Yorkshire and England. My Sporting Life is Sir Michael's love letter to sport, to the heroes and legends of his Yorkshire youth, to the characters of the international games he watched and wrote about, and to the very idea of sport itself. 

Jamie Roberts is your quintessential hard man: a six-foot-four, 17-stone slab of rippling muscle, conditioned to run hard into other huge men in an arena where physical dominance is the prime currency. Yet away from rugby, he's a mild-mannered and thoughtful man - a qualified doctor with a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity about the world around him. It's an intriguing contradiction.

Following his passing in 2019, tributes to Bob came flooding in in every major news outlet and from every major figure in the industry - and outside of it. His career spanned decades, from his days as a cricketer for England to his time as a pundit on Sky TV. This autobiography includes never-before-seen writing from Bob alongside contributions from key figures as well as a detailed account of the great England victory over Australia at Headingly in 1981.