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Instructions for Traveling West: Poems
By Joy Sullivan. 2024
A vivid and inspiring poetry collection about what&’s possible when we heed our instincts and honor our intuition, allowing ourselves…
to strike out for new territories of love, pleasure, and peace. &“This empathetic, honest, and intimate collection is chockful of poems reminding the reader to love earnestly, live freely, and pay attention.&”—Kate Baer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of And Yet and What Kind of WomanFirst, you must realize you&’re homesick for all the lives you&’re not living. Then, you must commit to the road and the rising loneliness. To the sincere thrill of coming apart. So begins Joy Sullivan&’s Instructions for Traveling West—a lush debut collection that examines what happens when we leave home and leap into the deep unknown. Mid-pandemic, Sullivan left the man she planned to marry, sold her house, quit her corporate job, and drove west. This dazzling collection tells that story as it illuminates the questions haunting us all: What possible futures lie on the horizon? What happens when we heed the call of furious reinvention? A book for anyone flinging themselves into fresh starts, Instructions for Traveling West grapples with loss, loneliness and belonging. These poems teach us that naming our desire is profound alchemy. Each of us holds the power to set our own course forward. Expansive and heart-opening—exquisite in their specificity, galvanizing in their scope—the poems in Instructions for Traveling West speak to the longing that lives within us all. They remind us that &“joy is not a trick.&”Black Cyclists: The Race for Inclusion (Sport and Society)
By Robert J. Turpin. 2024
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against…
white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport’s early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle not only as a vehicle but as a means of social mobility--a mobility that attracted white ire. Prominent Black cyclists like Marshall “Major” Taylor and Kitty Knox fought for equality amidst racist and increasingly pervasive restrictions. But Turpin also tells the stories of lesser-known athletes like Melvin Dove, whose actions spoke volumes about his opposition to the color line, and Hardy Jackson, a skilled racer forced to turn to stunt riding in vaudeville after Taylor became the only non-white permitted to race professionally in the United States. Eye-opening and long overdue, Black Cyclists uses race, technology, and mobility to explore a forgotten chapter in cycling history.Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World
By Clive Everton. 2007
Throughout its chequered history, snooker has had more than its fair share of heroes and villains, champions and chumps, rascals…
and rip-off artists. In the last 20 years, every sleazy scandal imaginable has attached itself to this raffish sport: corruption, match fixing, bribery, sex, recreational drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, ballot rigging, fraud, theft, domestic violence, common-or-garden violence, paranoid politicking, dirty tricks - all against a background of inept petty tsars fixated on the pursuit, retention and abuse of power. In Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards, Clive Everton recounts the glory and despair, the dreams and disillusion, and the treachery and greed that have characterised the game since it was invented as an innocent diversion by British Army officers in India in the nineteenth century. He tells the true and unexpurgated tale of snooker's transformation into a television success story second only to football and exposes how its potential has been shamefully squandered.Black Country
By Liz Berry. 2014
WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2014*PBS Recommendation 2014*‘When I became a bird, Lord, nothing could not stop…
me…’In Black Country, Liz Berry takes flight: to Wrens Nest, Gosty Hill, Tipton-on-Cut; to the places of home. The poems move from the magic of childhood – bostin fittle at Nanny’s, summers before school – into deeper, darker territory: sensual love, enchanted weddings, and the promise of new life. In Berry’s hands, the ordinary is transformed: her characters shift shapes, her eye is unusual, her ear attuned to the sounds of the Black Country, with ‘vowels ferrous as nails, consonants / you could lick the coal from.’ Ablaze with energy and full of the rich dialect of the West Midlands, this is an incandescent debut from a poet of dazzling talent and verve.Bikie: A Love Affair with the Racing Bicycle
By Charlie Woods. 2001
Bikie lays bare the true heart of cycling. Every grass-roots enthusiast, keen racing man and elite professional has one thing…
in common: he loves his bike and riding it. The author pinpoints the source of his love, tracing its development in the individual, how it draws people into a community and then a tradition – creating a whole worldwide culture to celebrate that deep affection for what is a technological marvel and transcendent experience. Great champions, too, are inseparable from their bikes. They merge into them, becoming a composite image, figures of myth. As well as exerting an emotional hold, cycling, in its famous races, also mounts a living proof of exemplary virtues: courage, perseverance and self-sacrifice – gives us, in fact, a glimpse of the higher reaches of the human spirit. There is a sense of this mythical realm in every pedal turn, for once astride a handbuilt lightweight we are put in touch with the greatest riders of all time.Bikie is the story of one man’s passionate involvement, but in its forthright sincerity it goes to the roots of what we all share.Big Mal: The High Life and Hard Times of Malcolm Allison, Football Legend
By David Tossell. 2008
Malcolm Allison is one of the most controversial figures of the last half-century of English football. Leader of the famed…
'West Ham Academy', his playing career was cut short by the loss of a lung to tuberculosis. Disillusioned, he became a professional gambler before acknowledging that football was his calling. After humble beginnings as a coach, he began a celebrated partnership with Joe Mercer, turning Manchester City into one of the most stylish teams English football has produced. Along with the trophies came the birth of Big Mal, the larger-than-life personality who helped revolutionise televised football. He became instantly recognisable for his cigar and Fedora, and equally notorious for a string of affairs with beautiful women. As the dark side of Big Mal took over, he was banned for life from the touchlines, became embroiled in a series of boardroom battles and spent time in police cells and rehabilitation clinics fighting the effects of alcoholism. Yet despite the often-destructive effect of his Big Mal persona, Malcolm Allison retains his status as one of the most incisive minds to have graced the game. This book tells both sides of the story, tracing the life and times of one of the most charismatic characters in British sport.The Best XI
By Geoffrey Boycott. 2008
Who'd make it into the best England team ever? And you can chose anyone, regardless of when they might have…
played. Would W.G. Grace be playing alongside Denis Compton and David Gower? Or Kevin Pietersen? The debate could be endless, so who better to make the selection than Geoffrey Boycott, himself one of England's all-time highest scoring Test batsmen and now the game's most forthright, shrewd and iconoclastic commentator.Based on his own fresh analysis amd interpretation of the statistics, Boycs has come up with his own, sometimes surprising Best Eleven of all time. And he's not just cast a critical eye over England's finest either. Every other test-playing nation comes under the spotlight.You may not agree - in fact, you're almost certain not to - but each player has been carefully chosen and the case for his inclusion forcefully argued in what is sure to be the most entertaining, thought-provoking and memorable cricket books of the year from one of the game's most outspoken and enduring characters.Best of British: Hendo's Sporting Heroes
By Jon Henderson. 2007
Best of British is a celebration of the nation's greatest 100 sporting heroes, from Henry VIII to Red Rum, Roy…
of the Rovers to Torvill and Dean. Jon Henderson has combed through the annals of our glorious and not so glorious past to bring us the geniuses and the eccentrics, the national treasures and the villains who together have shaped our present.Trueman and W. G., Best and Edwards, racing drivers, jockeys, rowers - just what does it take to make a sporting superhero? Hendo's 100 reveals all. Opinionated and provocative, his witty character studies - accompanied by stylish illustrations - capture the essence of his subjects' greatness, re-evaluating the famous and rescuing the forgotten. But when there's a cast of thousands to choose from, and hundreds of years of history to explore, who will make the cut for the most heroic of the heroic? Find out, in Best of British.The Berlin Wall Cafe
By Paul Durcan. 1995
This was the collection with which Durcan broke through to the huge and appreciative audience he enjoys today. In the…
first part are poems of great satirical comedy and also of great passion and indignation, and in the second part, poems about the break-up of a marriage so intense they would hurt if they weren't also possessed of the healing gifts of truthfulness and humour. In The Berlin Wall Café Durcan has located that space between the walls and barriers societies and individuals erect - a no-man's-land of the free imagination where we meet as the vulnerable and comical human beings we are. It contains some of his very best work.Beowulf: A Ladybird Expert Book (The Ladybird Expert Series #26)
By Janina Ramirez. 2019
Part of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES'This accessible illustrated guide is a great introduction to the story, its origins and…
its enduring legacy' BBC HISTORY- Which is more terrifying - a monster or its mother? - Why did Berserkers run naked into battle? - How was the story of Beowulf almost lost forever?PLUNGE into the adventures of Beowulf, the 6th Century hero who defeated the monster Grendel, became king of his people, and slayed a tremendous dragon. Surviving in a single, burnt manuscript, Beowulf continues to entrance readers and inspire major works of fantasy today.WARRIORS. MONSTERS. DRAGONS. GOLD.Janina Ramirez's Beowulf is an accessible and authoritative guide to the spellbinding world and daring feats of a poem remembered through the centuries.Beowulf
By Unknown. 2013
Beowulf is the greatest surviving work of literature in Old English, unparalleled in its epic grandeur and scope. It tells…
the story of the heroic Beowulf and of his battles, first with the monster Grendel, who has laid waste to the great hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, then with Grendel's avenging mother, and finally with a dragon that threatens to devastate his homeland. Through its blend of myth and history, Beowulf vividly evokes a twilight world in which men and supernatural forces live side by side. And it celebrates the endurance of the human spirit in a transient world."Alexander's translation is marked by a conviction that it is possible to be both ambitious and faithful [and] ...communicates the poem with a care which goes beyond fidelity-to-meaning and reaches fidelity of implication. May it go on ... to another half-million copies." - Tom Shippey, Bulletin of the International Association of University Professors of EnglishBeowulf (Legends from the Ancient North)
By Petra Borner. 2013
Part of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, Beowulf is one of the classic books that influenced JRR…
Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings'So the company of men led a careless life,All was well with them: until One beganTo encompass evil, an enemy from hell.Grendel they called this cruel spirit...'J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating and teaching the great epic stories of northern Europe, filled with heroes, dragons, trolls, dwarves and magic. He was hugely influential for his advocacy of Beowulf as a great work of literature and, even if he had never written The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, would be recognised today as a significant figure in the rediscovery of these extraordinary tales.Legends from the Ancient North brings together from Penguin Classics five of the key works behind Tolkien's fiction.They are startling, brutal, strange pieces of writing, with an elemental power brilliantly preserved in these translations.They plunge the reader into a world of treachery, quests, chivalry, trials of strength.They are the most ancient narratives that exist from northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of the magical landscape of Middle-earth (Midgard) which Tolkien remade in the 20th century.Benny: The Life And Times Of A Fighting Legend
By John Burrowes. 1982
'Before Benny, nobody from the Gorbals became World Champion of anything...'Benny Lynch was Scotland's first World Boxing Champion and the…
most talked-about British sportsman of his generation. In fact, many consider him to be the finest fighter the country has ever produced.Benny is the amazing account of how Lynch battled his way above and beyond the 'fifty-shilling men' of his home town of Glasgow to become the champion of Scotland, Britain, Europe and the world, earning a reputation as one of the greatest pugilists of all time. But this absorbing biography also details how his career sadly came to a premature halt because of Lynch's alcoholism, which destroyed his health and led to him being abandoned by his countless followers. It took his tragic death at the age of only 33 to restore the fallen idol to legendary status again.The gritty reality of the daily grind of life in the Depression-era Gorbals is captured vividly in this remarkable story of the rise and tragic fall of a fighting legend.Believe: Boxing, Olympics and my life outside the ring
By Nicola Adams. 2017
THE STORY BEHIND THE WOMAN WHO CHANGED THE FACE OF BOXING FOREVER, OBE NICOLA ADAMSAt London 2012, Nicola Adams made…
history when she became the first woman ever to win an Olympic Gold medal for boxing. In Rio 2016, with the nation cheering her on, she did it all over again. Years of relentless training, fundraising and determination have seen Nicola battle through injury, prejudice and defeat to become one of Britain best-loved athletes and an inspiration to all those who are chasing after a seemingly impossible dream. From a leisure centre in Leeds to the Olympic Stadium in Rio, Nicola with her famous smile has become an LGBTQ+ icon and the poster girl for women in sport. This is her story of grit, talent and the real person behind the smile.Nicola partnered Katya Jones in BBC's Strictly Come Dancing first same-sex couple. ____________________WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT NICOLA:'One book every woman or girl should read' Reader Review'Fascinating to see how Nicola and her family had to fight to get women's boxing recognised' Reader Review'Nicola tells this story from the heart, very honest, very open' Reader Review'The positivity, strength, determination of Nicola is uplifting. I really appreciated how she fought for women's rights to do boxing' Reader ReviewBehind the Mask: Winner of the Telegraph Sports Book of the Year
By Tyson Fury. 2019
AS SEEN ON NETFLIX'S AT HOME WITH THE FURYSTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR** TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK OF THE…
YEAR **DOUBLE WINNER: BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY & BEST OVERALL SPORTS BOOK OF 2020________________________________ 'Incredible stories... you don't have to be a boxing fan to enjoy it' SCOTT MILLS, BBC RADIO 1'One of sport's most heart-warming stories' SUNDAY TIMES, SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR'A must-read for any boxing fan.' WORLD BOXING NEWS'If you know someone who is a fan of the People's Champion then they'll love this.' TALKSPORT XMAS GIFT GUIDEThe extraordinary story of the rise and fall and rise again of Tyson Fury...THE GYPSY KING.A Manchester lad from Irish Traveller stock, born three months premature and weighing just a pound at birth, Tyson (named after his father's boxing hero) grew up to become one of the most unlikely heavyweight champions in history. This 'dream come true' soon turned to nightmare, however, as alcohol and cocaine abuse took hold and Tyson was stripped of his titles. What followed was the darkest moment of his life - detailed in this book for the first time - in which he came within seconds of ending everything.THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION.Like all the greatest stories, though, there is redemption and Tyson defies all the odds and literally drags himself to his feet. 10 million people around the globe watched Fury fight Wilder in the biggest fight of the boxing calendar. Speaking candidly about his struggles with mental health, this is Tyson Fury as you have never seen him before.A BRITISH ICON.________________________________ Behind the Mask is an unflinching story from the greatest boxer of our time and a man who has demonstrated strength of a very different kind by conquering his demons.________________________________ 'It's a great book, if I could read, I'd buy it' BILLY JOE SAUNDERS, WBO World Super-Middleweight Champion'I didn't believe boxers could be role models, but Tyson Fury has changed my mind... This 30-year-old Mancunian has made us all think twice about the possibilities of redemption.'SIMON KELNER, INDEPENDENT'Tyson Fury has become Britain's most unlikely inspirational figure... the sight of a broken Fury caught a mood with the public. Never was the epithet "People's Champion" more apt'RON LEWIS, THE TIMES'Tyson Fury is an amazing real-life champion' SYLVESTER STALLONE, star of Rocky'You may not have any interest in boxing at all and you will find this story about Tyson's life fascinating' BBC RADIO 5 LIVE'An unusual, heartening story, nicely told. There is much to amaze and admire' SUNDAY TIMESBehind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs and Football
By Gary Lineker, Danny Baker. 2019
***Includes a new foreword by Gary Lineker about football in lockdown***Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards'Lineker is nearly as…
good a presenter as I was a footballer' DIEGO MARADONA'Hilarious, almost as funny as me' ALAN SHEARER'This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn't expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. . . Lineker opens up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.' THE TIMES_______________________________________________________________'Football is a simple game. 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win.'This book is inspired by the stories Danny and I have shared with each other about what life in football is really like: in the dressing room, in the commentary box, on the pitch and - with the appropriate pixellation - in the showers afterwards.What's it really like to play with Messi? I wouldn't know, but I have starred alongside him in an advert for Walkers crisps. And, well, his performance was world-class.And what is a life in football really like? You won't learn much from the dull-as-dishwater post-match interviews - it's a world of secrets, superstitions, laughs and personalities, and let me tell you, half of it you won't believe.I've looked back at my playing days, from England to Leicester, Everton to Barcelona, Tottenham to, er, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and shared the chaotic behind-the-scenes secrets of Match of the Day - and Danny has chipped in with stories from a lifetime following the game as a fan.From Italia '90 to Leicester's Premier League fairytale, from yellow cards to World Cup trophies (I've never been awarded either), from Gascoigne to Maradona, you'll find it all here - everything you always wanted to know about football, but didn't realise that you did.Inspired by the No.1 podcast Behind Closed DoorsThe Bee's Knees
By Roger McGough. 2003
A brilliant collection of brand-new poems from 'the patron saint of poetry'. Longer, narrative poems sit comfortably with Roger McGough's…
sharper observations and insightful words in this collection, perfectly illustrated in black-and-white line by Helen Stephens.The Bedsers: Twinning Truimphs
By Alan Hill. 2001
Sporting twins Alec and Eric Bedser are a remarkable duo. From humble origins at Woking to their reign as key…
members of the Surrey team during the magnificent succession of seven championships in the 1950s, they share a rare and precious relationship. The Bedsers is Alan Hill's engrossing study which explores the puzzles of their identical twinship. Alec Bedser was England's bowling standard bearer in the years following the Second World War. His exceptional strength and prowess yielding almost 1,924 wickets, including 236 in 51 Tests. He was at the peak of his powers in the 1953 series against Australia, when his aggregate of 39 wickets beat the previous record held by Maurice Tate. It included match figures of 14 wickets for 99 runs at Nottingham - a feat only surpassed against Australia by Wilfred Rhodes, Hedley Verity and Jim Laker. High among his other distinctions was his record against Don Bradman whom he dismissed on eight occasions.After retirement, Alex maintained his connection with cricket in fulfilling administrative duties, which included a record term as Chairman of the Test selectors. Knighted in 1997 for his services to cricket, he is the only English bowler to receive the honour.Becoming a Lion
By Johnny Sexton. 2013
Johnny Sexton - the man who pulled the strings for the Lions - gives an intimate insight into the rugby…
life in Becoming a Lion.With three Heineken Cups and one British and Irish Lions tour victory under his belt, Johnny Sexton is by some distance the leading fly-half in the northern hemisphere. Over the course of the Lions' first victorious Test series in sixteen years, Sexton was the man pulling the strings. His try in the third test was the decisive blow, and his joyous celebrations after scoring were echoed in homes across Britain and Ireland. Becoming a Lion is an intimate portrait of life at the highest levels of the professional game - at Leinster, with Ireland, and on tour with the Lions.'Bracing and fascinating in equal measure' Malachy Clerkin, Irish Times'Riveting ... Opens a remarkable window into the stresses, hurts and insecurities of a professional life in rugby' Vincent Hogan, Irish Independent'Captures all the jagged edges that make Sexton one of Irish sport's most compelling characters' Sunday Times'Sets a great benchmark for sports autobiographies, given that it is so honest' Matt Cooper, Today FM'Engrossing' Rugby World Ireland'If you crave an insight into the life of a professional rugby player ... Becoming a Lion is a must' Donal Lenihan, Irish Examiner 'Intensely revealing' Irish Daily MailBeautiful Brutality: The Family Ties at the Heart of Boxing
By Adam Smith. 2012
Boxing. The Sport of Kings. And for every king, there are kingmakers and princes, determined heirs and ruthless pretenders to…
the throne. Boxers may enter the ring alone, but behind them are their families, many of whom have spent a career in the fight game themselves. And all are caught up in this most beautiful but brutal of sports.Beautiful Brutality is the first book to examine the world of boxing from the perspective of family. With unprecedented access to the likes of the Calzaghes, Mayweathers, Hattons and Khans, Sky Sports boxing expert Adam Smith lays bare the raw emotion at the heart of the sport. How does it feel when your son is taking a pummelling? Can a father make rational judgements from the corner of the ring, in the frenzied atmosphere of a fight? And how much strength does a boxer take from his family, or the family figures that so many trainers and promoters become?Passionate, hard-hitting and with astonishing revelations about the world of boxing, Beautiful Brutality is written from the heart, by an author with a unique knowledge and experience of the fight game.