Showing results by publisher "Quercus" in Sports & Outdoors

When Vanessa O'Brien was made redundant in 2008 as part of the recession, she moved to Hong Kong with her husband for his career and resigned herself to being 'just the wife'. There she was, aged 46, bored, uninspired, unemployed. Was this going to be how she was going to live the rest of her life? One night in the infamous Kee Club, over shots of tequila, a friend suggested O'Brien climb Everest and that was the start of an epic journey she never looked back from as she climbed Everest, K2 and many other mountains. This is her inspirational story.

In his vital debut, The Sustainable Self: A Guide to Coping, Identity, and Action in a Climate Changed World, Doherty will share his unique step-by-step psychological approach to understanding and healing our environmental anguish, a process he has been teaching practitioners and patients for over 15 years.

Charly Gaul is a forgotten cycling legend. Once a household name across Europe, the diminutive Luxembourger won the 1958 Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia twice. A unique rider, Gaul was supremely gifted at climbing and resilient even in the foulest weather. His pedalling style was smooth and swift, and he could set an unmatchable metronome rhythm on a mountain climb. 'Mozart on two wheels,' was how one contemporary writer described him; another dubbed him 'The Angel of the Mountains'.

Geraint Thomas is one of Britain's most loved sports stars. He's won Olympic gold medals, finished first, second and third at the Tour de France, and stayed at the top of his sport for almost two decades as other riders and eras have come and gone. This is the story of his epic journey - from the streets of suburban Cardiff to the Champs-Elysees in Paris, from the mountains of the Alps to the cobbles of northern Europe. The races, the rivals, the triumphs and the magical moments none of us will ever forget.

In 1940, Private Raymond Bailey, a 21-year-old Vauxhall motors apprentice, was captured in northern France, becoming a Nazi prisoner of war. But he wouldn't remain one for long... The Longest Walk Home is the incredible account of his daring 2,000 mile escape across Europe and over the Pyrenees, to the safety of British Gibraltar, and home in time for Christmas. Along the way Ray has nerve-shredding encounters with German soldiers and the Spanish Civil Guard. Often he is exhausted and starving.

Libby Clegg is one of the UK's most popular, recognisable and respected Paralympic athletes, having won 10 major gold medals, including two at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. As a sprinter who has only peripheral vision in her left eye, Libby runs with a guide runner while wearing a blindfold and, in 2021, she will defend her 100m and 200m titles at the Tokyo Paralympics.

In The Book of Tides, William Thomson took the listener on a mesmerising journey round the coast of Britain. Now he sets out with his surfboard and tidal compass to encounter the waters of the world, charting his most extraordinary sights and experiences. These include the whirlpools of the Arctic circle, the world's biggest ever surfed wave off Portugal, the strongest whirlpool in Norway and, in Australia, the most dangerous rapids known to us.

This is an audiobook for those who want to understand better how the waters surrounding us affect our daily lives, how it imperceptibly but crucially shapes our actions and has shaped our landscape for millennia. It's for anyone who knows and loves our coast and who wants to understand, discover, surf or sail it better. Inspired by his own witnessing of the power of the sea through travelling around Britain's coastline in a panel van with his young family, William Thomson tells the story of the cycles of the sea.

Three of the greatest football clubs: Celtic, Liverpool and Manchester United. Their three greatest managers: Jock Stein, Bill Shankly and Matt Busby. Three men born within a 20-mile radius of each other in the central lowlands of Scotland; forged in mining communities to subsequently shape the course of modern football. More than the sum of its parts, Three Kings promises a narrative beyond any single biography of its three subjects could.