SPORT IN LITERATURE

By the mid-1950s Manchester United had caught the imagination of the country. Duncan Edwards played his first game for the club at the age of 15 years and eight months in 1953. Two years later he won his first England cap. Half a decade later George Best represented United reborn. 'Georgie' of the boutiques and dolly birds; 'El Beatle' of the European Cup in '68 and European Player of the Year; in the opinion of Pele, the most naturally talented footballer that ever lived. Retired at 27 and reduced to the role of Chelsea barfly and tabloid perennial; George, where did it all go wrong? An investigation into a club, two personalities and an England that has all but disappeared, Best and Edwards plots the course and trajectory of two careers unmoored in wildly different ways.

David Beckham’s historic transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid was one of the greatest challenges of the football star’s career. Jimmy Burns follows Beckham during his first dramatic season, placing his experiences there within the broader context of Spanish football and cultural identity.

Set on an RAF flying boat stationed in Africa during the Second World War, the action is set against the backdrop of an unusual cricket match that acts as a catharsis for the story's developing relationships and a context for portraying the human dramas that unfold.

Maria Coffey confronted one of the harshest realities of mountaineering when her lover, Joe Tasker, disappeared on the north east ridge of Everest in 1982. This title tackles the romantic myth of moutaineering, revealing its extraordinary moments of exhilaration and its far-reaching personal costs.

The gentle, humourous tale of an amateur cricket team who spend their summer touring the West Country. Featuring a number of thrills and spills as they battle for glory on pitches throughout Devon and Cornwall, the loyalty, integrity and good nature of the team members is tested to its limit.

Sir Alex Ferguson has written numerous autobiographies, but this is journalist Michael Crick's critical analysis of Ferguson's astonishing career from his early days as a struggling footballer to one of the greatest operators in contemporary football.
'A splendid piece of sports portraiture and a prolonged lesson in the art of biographical journalism.' The Sunday Times

A collection of connected short stories based around the adventures of Hector Blenkinsopp as he attempts to attend football matches at as many English football grounds as is humanly possible. Based loosely on the author's own experiences, this is an engaging and witty account of an obsessed character lurching from one mishap to the next.

Drawn from Davies’ footballing columns in the New Statesman magazine, The Fan is a collection of personal pieces about his life as a football supporter. From the late 90s to the early 2000s, the big footballing topics of the day are tackled with verve and wit alongside recollections of his home life in London and the Lake District.

Hunter Davies is well known for his fantastical children's books based around the wacky character of Flossie Teacake. With Striker he introduces another individual spirit in the form of Italian football superstar Joe Swift. Joe's journey takes him on a madcap round of romantic adventures, run-ins with smooth operating football mangers and clashes with rivals.

Inspired by John Cheever's classic short story The Swimmer, Roger Deakin set off on his own journey around the watery spots of Britain, from sea to river to brook to swimming pool to spa pool. He swims with salmon in Somerset and eels in the Fens, he explores the environmental implications of farming and chemical pollution on British waterways and offers an unusual perspective on contemporary Britain.
'Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight' - The Independent on Sunday