Forthcoming sport publications, arranged chronologically by publication date

Author: Fife, Graeme

Title: The Beautiful machine - A Life in Cycling, from Tour de France to Cinder Hill

Pub Date: May 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Graeme Fife has been riding a bike since he discovered, aged five, that escaping from home on two wheels was a lot faster and took him a lot farther than was possible on foot. He soon allied love of what was, admittedly, quite a humble version of the beautiful machine – a solid-tyred, overweight rattler – with a tenacious grip on independence.

It was on a bike that Fife visited a girlfriend in France, who introduced him not only to raclette and the Tour de France but also to French cycling journalism. Since then, the passion has seeded books, articles, epic rides, acquaintance with some of the most illustrious men in cycling as well as staunch friendships on and off the bike.

This is bare-knuckle writing at its most punchy, rippling with wit and energy. It is a celebration of the bicycle and the joy, wonder, adventure, good times and bad, bad times associated with it, and of the people who ride and with whom Fife has ridden. Here are explorations of all dimensions of the experience, on, round, with, via and about the beautiful machine.

Pagination: 336pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845962418 Cost £16.99 Cycling

Graeme Fife is a full-time writer with several books published in the UK and the USA. A keen cyclist, he has ridden all the celebrated cols of Tour legend. He is also the author of the bestselling Tour de France: The History, The Legend, The Riders and Inside the Peloton: Riding, Winning and Losing the Tour de France.

Author: Dabell, Norman

Title: One Hand on the Claret Jug - How They Nearly Won the Open

Pub Date: June 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Everyone remembers a winner, especially when victory comes in the oldest major golf championship in the world. But what about the players who got to the brink and then let the ancient trophy slip through their fingers? The Open has always featured triumph and disaster since it began in 1860 and this book is all about the latter of those ‘two impostors’. From Doug Sanders’ missed three-footer in 1970 to Monty’s brave bid to finally end his major wait in 2005, at last the Open’s hard-luck stories can be told.

• What happened when the chips were down for Tony Jacklin and how did it affect his major chances from then on?

• Whose ‘air-shot’ possibly cost him the Open?

• Why did Tom Watson hit a two-iron at the Road Hole?

• How could a marshal have cost Bernhard Langer his best chance of winning an Open?

• Why didn’t Jesper Parnevik check the leaderboard in 1994?

• Who had a vision he was going to sink one of the most famous putts in Open history?

• Why did Jean Van de Velde have such a nightmare at the Barry Burn at Carnoustie in 1999?

Read about those who had one hand on the Claret Jug but, in the end, didn’t lift it in triumph.

‘A collection of the best disaster stories from the Open. Exclusive interviews alone make this worthwhile’ (****)

– Today’s Golfer

Pagination: 272pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962623 Cost £7.99 Golf

Norman Dabell, a member of the Association of Golf Writers, has been covering golf since 1979. A former deputy editor of Golf Illustrated, he has been a freelance journalist and broadcaster since 1989. He was BBC Radio Five Live’s reporter for ten years and currently writes for Reuters news agency and the Daily Telegraph, and broadcasts for BBC Radio Ulster.

Author: Mattews, Tony

Title: Who's Who of Arsenal

Pub Date: August 2007

Rights: World All languages

Who’s Who of Arsenal is a comprehensive guide that promises to settle any disputes amongst supporters of the club once and for all.

Packed with facts and stats, it contains profiles of every player who has appeared for the Gunners in a senior competitive match since 1888, the year the club played its first London Senior Cup-tie, through to the end of the 2005–06 season, the last at Highbury.

Over the years, some truly great players have been associated with Arsenal, among them: George Armstrong, Jimmy Ashcroft, Cliff Bastin, Dennis Bergkamp, Liam Brady, Charlie Buchan, Ted Drake, George Eastham, Eddie Hapgood, Thierry Henry, Joe Hulme, David Jack, Alex James, Pat Jennings, Frank McLintock, Joe Mercer, Patrick Vieira and Ian Wright.

As well as providing full details on these legends and many others, this indispensable guide also lists the men who have managed Arsenal down the years, including: Leslie Knighton, the great Herbert Chapman, George Allison, Tom Whittaker, Bertie Mee, George Graham and current boss Arsène Wenger.

Who’s Who of Arsenal is essential reading for any supporter who wants to know everything there is to know about the men who have served this famous London club.

Pagination: 336pp Trade Paperback; 9781845962326 Cost £9.99 Football

Tony Matthews is a former semi-professional footballer who played briefly in Switzerland. He is now a soccer historian and statistician, and is curator of West Bromwich Albion Football Club’s museum.

Author: edited by Hugman, Barry J.

Title: The PFA Footballer's Who's Who 2007-08

Pub Date: August 2007

Rights: World All Languages

 

The PFA Footballers’ Who’s Who is a comprehensive review of the skills, achievements and statistics of all those who played in the Barclaycard Premiership and Coca-Cola Football League Championship and Divisions One and Two during the 2006–07 season. At the same time, it also takes into account each player’s performances in the FA Cup, Carling Cup, Football League Trophy and European competitions, where applicable. Full names, birthplaces/dates, international/club honours, heights/weights, career records, signing dates and transfer fees make this the most complete player information available.

This is a vital tool for club managers, scouts and back-room staff, and an essential handbook for regular football followers at all levels. It is a unique source of information on opposition players as well as providing background information on footballers either newly transferred or on loan.

The PFA Footballers’ Who’s Who is an ideal companion for all lovers of the beautiful game.

‘Excellent and informative’ – Sunday Times

‘The best reference book of its kind’ – The Guardian

‘An excellent reference book’ – Daily Express

‘The joy of turning its 480 pages is in the nuggety pen-pictures of every player who pulled on a shirt in the English leagues last season. One to wallow in’

– Daily Telegraph

‘Essential’ (****) – FourFourTwo

Pagination: 480pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962463 Cost £17.99 Football

Barry J. Hugman, the first man to introduce complete post-war players’ league records to the public, is an experienced author, researcher, compiler and statistician. His other recent publications include The PFA Premier and Football League Players’ Records and The British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook. He lives in Norfolk.

Author: Andrews, Marvin with Brown, Tom

Title: Marvellous Marvin - The Life and Faith of a Soca Warior

Pub Date: August 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Marvin Andrews is an extraordinary footballer whose talent has seen him quickly progress from barefoot kickabouts on the dusty streets of his Caribbean neighbourhood to top-flight Scottish Football and 99 international appearances with 'Soca Warriors' Trinidad and Tobago. Beginning his professional career with Trinidadian club San Juan Jabloteh in 1995, he came to Scotland in 1997, where his achievments include a Scottish Cup win with Livingston in 2003-04 and the Premier League title win with Rangers in 2004-05.

In Marvellous Marvin, Andrew reveals what it felt like to play alongside some of the greatest names in the modern game, frankly opines about playing in the notorious Rangers-Celtic Old Firm clashes in an atmosphere of religious rivalry and discusses how his faith has led him away from a wild life of women, alcohol and gambling to one of high morals and born- again Christianity.

Marvellous Marvin is a football autobiography with a difference by one of the game's true characters. Nicknamed 'Dog' in Trinidad due to his fierce-but-fair defending and known as the 'Gentle Giant' amongst Scottish fans, this is the story of Marvin Andrews: preacher, pastor, healer...and top- class footballer.

Pagination: 240pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845962784 Cost £15.99 Sport/Football

Marvin Andrews was born in San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago in 1975. He currently plays in defence for Raith Rovers and has previously played for both Livingston and Rangers. He played for his national side in the 2006 World Cup.

Tom Brown is a well-known columnist, political editor and commentator who has written for many national publications including the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail, and the Daily Record.

 

Author: Williams, John and Llopis, Ramon

Title: Groove Armada - Rafa Benitez, Anfield and the New Spanish Fury

Pub Date: August 2007

Rights: World All Languages

 

In 2004, Rafa Benítez decamped from success at Valencia CF to become manager of Liverpool, bringing with him a platoon of Spanish players and designs on the club’s first league title since 1990. In his first season in England, Benítez offered both hope and misery to Liverpool supporters. In Europe, the club battled to the final of the Champions League in 2005 and, against all expectations, won. Domestically, though, they faltered.

Could he yet turn Liverpool around and learn from his early mistakes? And could Liverpool overcome their own structural and funding problems to deliver a new stadium, new investors and a team to match their supporters’ ambitions?

Groove Armada examines the developing connections between the English and Spanish game and focuses on Benítez’s attempt to bring the Premiership title to Anfield. It also uniquely offers a detailed account from Spanish academic Ramón Llopis of Benítez’s rise in the Spanish game, including his terrific work at Valencia.

Rafa Benítez has brought a distinctly Iberian flavour to Liverpool Football Club, and this engrossing book reveals all you need to know about the man, his football philosophy and the new Spanish fury at Anfield.

Pagination: 288pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962050Cost £7.99 Sport/Football

John Williams is an academic at the University of Leicester who has written widely about football and football culture.

Ramon Llopis is an academic at the University of Valencie who has been involved in recent research comparing football and football cultures in England and Spain.

 

Author: Cooke, Charlie with Knight, Martin

Title: The Bonnie Prince - Charlie Cooke: My Football Life

Pub Date: September 2007

Rights: World All Languages

 

Before Joe Cole, Dennis Wise and Frank Leboeuf were ‘Here, There and Every ******* Where’, there was Charlie Cooke. He arrived at Chelsea in 1966 as a replacement for club favourite Terry Venables and promptly delighted the fans with his superb ball skills, searing runs and perceptive crosses. Most spectacular of all was his magical body swerve, which triggered a collective mega-decibel sigh from the Shed. They called him ‘the Magician’, ‘the Maestro’ and ‘the Wizard’, or just ‘Charlie, Charlie, Charlie Cooke’.

Cooke became a pivotal member of the mercurial Chelsea side of the late 1960s and ’70s, playing alongside the likes of Peter Bonetti, Alan Hudson and Peter Osgood. The epic two-match 1970 FA Cup final against arch-enemies Leeds remains to this day one of the most-watched television events ever in the United Kingdom.

Like many of the era, Cooke finished his career in America, where he played with and against the likes of George Best and Pelé. But unlike most of the other British players, Cooke stayed on in the USA, helping the country to develop as a footballing nation.

The Bonnie Prince is an insightful, exciting and entertaining account of a special footballer, once seen never forgotten.

Pagination: 336pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962272 Cost £7.99 Sport/Football

Charlie Cooke began his career with Aberdeen and, following a spell with Dundee, joined Chelsea in 1966, where he was part of the legendary 1970s team that won the FA Cup and the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. He was capped sixteen times by Scotland and made two hundred and eighty-nine appearances for Chelsea in two spells at the club. In between, he joined Crystal Palace, and he later ended his playing career in the USA. Charlie is still committed to football and lives and works in America, where he is a director of the world-famous Coerver® Coaching.

Martin Knight is the author of London Calling and the novel Common People as well as co-author of autobiographies of George Best, Peter Osgood and Dave Mackay.

Author: Ferguson, Barry with King, Iain

Title: Blue - The Life and Times of Barry Ferguson

Pub Date: September 2007

Rights: World All Languages

 

Barry Ferguson is Scotland’s most gifted footballer, the heartbeat of Rangers and the captain of his country. He has grown up in the spotlight, but the fans know only his public face. Now, a star who is notoriously protective of his privacy opens his heart and delivers a no-holds-barred account of his controversial career.

Blue features Ferguson’s take on all aspects of his eventful journey so far, including the axing of Lorenzo Amoruso as Gers’ skipper and Ferguson’s appointment at the age of only 22; the horrifying night of violence when he was bottled in the face after being sent off in a 6–2 Old Firm defeat; his venture into the Premiership after signing for Blackburn Rovers in 2003; the bust-up that followed with Rangers chairman David Murray; the despair and agony of the broken kneecap he feared had ended his career; and the eventual elation he felt on his return to his boyhood heroes. Ferguson also reveals the details of his secret wedding to Margaret, his Catholic bride, and his pride when his career was recognised by the Queen.

Candid and frank, the man behind the headlines is revealed in Blue: The Life and Times of Barry Ferguson.

‘Sports book of the year’ – Scottish Sun

Pagination: 288pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962241Cost: £7.99 Sport/Football

Barry Ferguson is arguably the most talented Scottish player of his generation and wears the captain’s armband for both Rangers and his country. He lives in Lanarkshire with his wife, Margaret, and their three children.

Iain King is the chief football writer for the Scottish Sun and has covered top-level football for the last two decades. His previous books include the bestselling 9: The Story of Rangers’ Nine-in-a-Row Triumph and Blue and White Dynamite: The Ian Durrant Story. He lives in his native East Kilbride with his wife, Lorna, and their two children.

Author: Everton, Clive

Title: Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards - The Inside Story of the Snooker World

Pub Date: September 2007

Rights: World All Languages

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.

Pagination: 320pp Hardback; ISBN 978145961992 Cost: £17.99 Sport/Snooker

Clive Everton is the BBC’s senior snooker commentator and publishes and edits Snooker Scene magazine. He is the sport’s leading journalist and has also written on the game for The Guardian. He lives in Birmingham.

Author: Hugman, Barry J.

Title: The British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook 2008

Pub Date: October 2007

Rights: World All Languages

This expansive 2008 edition of The British Boxing Board of Control Boxing Yearbook contains in-depth information from around the world of boxing, including:

• full career records of all current British-based boxers;

• potted biographies and annual records for all IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO champions;

• all British Area, English, Celtic, British, Commonwealth, European and World title bouts in 2006–07;

• complete listings of British, Commonwealth, European and World champions;

• addresses of all British boxing promoters and managers;

• a comprehensive amateur section;

• boxing quizzes and several interesting articles; and

• many action and portrait photographs.

As essential as any of its previous 23 editions, The British Boxing Board of Control Boxing Yearbook 2008 is an excellent reference source for anyone involved or interested in the sport.

Pagination: 320pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845962548 Cost: £18.99 Sport/Boxing

Barry J. Hugman, who launched Boxing Monthly in May 1989, is an experienced author, researcher, editor and statistician. His other recent publications include The PFA Premier and Football League Players’ Records and The PFA Footballers’ Who’s Who. He lives in Norfolk.

Author: McLaren, Andy and Guidi, Mark

Title: Tormented - The Andy McLaren Story

Pub Date: October 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Andy McLaren is a professional footballer with an extraordinary story to tell. While playing for Reading in 2000, he failed a random drugs test and was immediately banned from football. He was forced to admit to being an alcoholic and cocaine abuser, and checked in to the Priory Clinic in Glasgow. After working hard to overcome his addictions, he resurrected his career with Kilmarnock later the same year and gained his first national cap when Scotland played Poland in 2001. But what had made him resort to drink and drugs?

In Tormented, McLaren reveals how he discovered through psychoanalysis that he had been a victim of abuse in childhood, and how this had led him down the path of alcohol and drug abuse. He documents his difficult journey to sobriety, during which he contemplated suicide, and explains how he coped with the shocking revelations from his past.

Tormented is a powerful, honest tale of a man whose career never hit the heights that his talents merited. It is the most revealing book written by any footballer, and his remarkable life story, laced with hope and humour, will be an inspiration to men and women in every walk of life.

Pagination: 272pp Trade Paperback; ISBN 9781845962746 Cost: £9.99 Autobiography/Football

Andy McLaren was brought up in the Castlemilk area of Glasgow and has been a professional footballer since the age of seventeen. He is married with two children and still lives in Glasgow.

Mark Guidi is the chief football writer at the Sunday Mail, where he has worked since 1995. He is the co-author of You Can Call Me Stan, the autobiography of footballer Stiliyan Petrov.

Author: Fife, Graham

Title: Tour de France - The History, The Legend, The Riders

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: World All Languages

It is one of sport’s toughest ordeals and the ultimate test for professional cyclists. The Tour de France sees riders pitted against all kinds of terrain and weather, in unrelenting competiton with their rivals for three weeks. This entertaining and highly acclaimed book gives a compelling insight into the mystique of the race and the unique fascination it has always exercised on devoted bike fans and occasional enthusiasts alike.

In this updated edition of the highly acclaimed Tour de France, Graeme Fife sets the 2007 race in the context of the event’s remarkable history, which began in July 1903. Combining meticulous research with a pacey narrative style, Fife penetrates the mystique of the race and paints a colourful picture of the men whose exploits have given the Tour an enduring universal appeal.

With tales of great solo rides, amazing fortitude, terrible misfortune and triumph, Tour de France is the definitive account of this extraordinary competition and has been named one of the top-five sports books of the year by both The Independent and The Times.

‘This is a beast of a book which teems with energy’

– The Herald

‘A complex picture of what one of the world’s great sporting events feels like from the inside’

– The Independent

‘Fife has a keen eye for detail’ – Sunday Times

‘Fife . . . has an infectious enthusiasm for the Tour and it shows in every sentence. This is a difficult book to put down’ – Phil Liggett, Cycle Sport

Pagination: 416pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962562 Cost: £10.99 Sport/Cycling

Graeme Fife is a full-time writer with several books published in the UK and the USA. A keen cyclist, he has ridden all the celebrated cols of Tour legend.

Author: Thomas, Gareth with Parfitt, Delme

Title: Alfie - The Gareth Thomas Story

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: Wolrd All Languages

From postman to captain of the British and Irish Lions, Gareth Thomas’s story is remarkable by any sportsman’s standards.

Universally known by his nickname Alfie, Thomas has amassed an impressive list of achievements in his exceptional career: he scored three tries on his international debut in the 1995 World Cup; in 2004, he was made captain of Wales by Mike Ruddock; he has claimed a record number of Test tries for his country, beating the mark of thirty-three set by Ieuan Evans; in 2005, he racked up not just the Grand Slam but also a Heineken Cup winner’s medal with Toulouse; and he stepped into the breach as leader of Sir Clive Woodward’s Lions when captain Brian O’Driscoll’s tour was prematurely ended.

Yet for all his successes, it is Thomas’s alternative yet engaging personality that marks him out as a true one-off. Never afraid to speak his mind, he has made it to the top simply by being himself.

In Alfie, Thomas reveals the inside story of his incredible rugby journey and offers readers an insight into one of the most intriguing personalities in the game.

Pagination: 336pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845961916 Cost: £17.99 Sport/Rugby

Gareth Thomas was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2005, the year in which he won the Heineken Cup with Toulouse and captained Wales to their first Grand Slam in 27 years. Born in 1974, Thomas lives in Toulouse with his wife, Jemma.

Delme Parfitt is head of sport content at the South Wales Echo and has previously worked for Wales on Sunday and Westgate Sports Agency. He is thirty-two years old and has been a specialist rugby writer for seven years.

Author: Murphy, Jeff

Title: Carwyn - Prince of Coaches

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Carwyn James is the only man to have coached a British and Irish Lions rugby touring team to victory against the All Blacks in New Zealand. He has been described as the greatest rugby coach the sport has seen and his ‘15-man rugby’ philosophy set the sporting world alight on an amazing tour of New Zealand in 1971.

James was also a great Welsh club coach and steered Llanelli to victory after victory, but his life was not entirely dominated by the sport. He was a prominent member of the Welsh nationalist party – Plaid Cymru – as well as a poet, eminent broadcaster and journalist.

But, as this intimate biography reveals, James developed alcohol problems, his sexual orientation became a subject of innuendo and gossip, and he suffered greatly with a virulent form of psoriasis. His mysterious death in a nondescript Amsterdam hotel in January 1983 left many questions unanswered.

In Carwyn: Prince of Coaches, Jeff Murphy sets out to unravel some of the mysteries behind the man. The results are startling and explosive and are sure to shock and intrigue.

Pagination: 288pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845960094 Cost: £16.99 Sport/Rugby

Jeff Murphy is a writer, screenwriter and television producer. He teaches creative writing for film and tutors guitar and English. In his spare time, he plays jazz with a local band and writes and records his own music. He is also the author of Johnny Owen, a biography of the boxer’s life.

Author: Richards, Huw

Title: A Game for Hooligans - The History of Rugby Union

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Rugby union has undergone immense change in the past two decades – introducing a World Cup, accepting professionalism and creating a global market in players – yet no authoritative English-language general history of the game has been published in that time. Until now.

A Game for Hooligans brings the game’s colourful story entirely up to date. It covers all of the great matches, teams and players but also explores the social, political and economic changes which have affected the course of rugby’s development. It is an international history, covering not only Britain and France but also the great rugby powers of the southern hemisphere and other successful rugby nations, including Argentina, Fiji and Japan.

Contained within are the answers to many intriguing questions concerning the game, such as why 1895 is the most important date in both rugby union and rugby league history, and how New Zealand became so good and have remained so good for so long. There is also a wealth of anecdotes, including allegations of devil-worship at a Welsh rugby club and an account of the game’s contribution to the Cuban Revolution.

This is a must-read for any fan of the oval ball.

Pagination: 320pp Paperback; ISBN 9781845962555 Cost: £7.99 Sport/Rugby

Huw Richards has been the Financial Times rugby correspondent since 1995. He is the author of Dragons and All Blacks, which was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, and co-author of two acclaimed volumes of essays on Welsh heroes, Heart and Soul and More Heart and Soul. He has covered all five World Cups and reported on more than 200 rugby internationals.

Author: Worrall, Frank

Title: Celtic United, Glasgow and Manchester - Two Football Clubs, One Passion

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: World All Languages

Celtic United is the first book ever to examine the special relationship that has developed over the years between Manchester United and Celtic, the two biggest football clubs in the UK and Ireland.

Bestselling author Frank Worrall digs deep to highlight how the clubs’ fans and teams are very much alike, primarily because they have for decades built from the defensive stronghold of being much despised in their native countries. He builds a vivid picture of the tragedies and triumphs that have befallen both clubs and looks at the altruistic base behind the formation of the clubs: how Celtic were formed by an Irish monk and how United developed through the grinding endeavours of an Italian immigrant.

Worrall also pinpoints how United and Celtic became the first British clubs to win the European Cup in consecutive years (Celtic in 1967 and United in 1968), how they each had a brilliant but tragic star within their ranks (George Best and Jimmy Johnstone respectively) and analyses the work of the men who have played for and managed each club.

Also given a voice in Celtic United are the fans who proudly wear badges and scarves showing their allegiance to both clubs. Rod Stewart, arguably their most famous fan, explains why he loves them both to the extent that he even wrote a song with the lyrics, ‘You’re Celtic, United, but baby I’ve decided you’re the best team I’ve ever seen.’

Pagination: 256pp Hardback; ISBN 184596022X Cost: £17.99 Sport/Football

Frank Worrall is a journalist who writes regularly for the Sunday Times, The Sun and FourFourTwo magazine. He has previously worked for the Mail on Sunday, the News of the World, The Times, NME and Melody Maker. He is also the author of the 2006 bestselling biography Roy Keane: Red Man Walking, and Rooney: Wayne’s World

Author: Miller, David

Title: The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC

Pub Date: November 2007

Rights: World All Languages

The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC is the dramatic account of the dual history of the world’s foremost sporting spectacle. It is the lavishly illustrated chronological story of the re-creation of the Olympic Games by Pierre de Coubertin, of the often tempestuous and controversial fortunes of the governing body, together with the highs and lows of the Games themselves.

It also tells the story of the historic competitors – from Spyridon Louis (the inaugural marathon winner) and such heroes as Jim Thorpe, Paavo Nurmi, Sonja Henie, Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Emil Zátopek, Herb Elliott, Kip Keino, Mark Spitz, Franz Klammer, Sebastian Coe, Greg Louganis and Carl Lewis, through to Hicham El Guerrouj, Michael Phelps and Sun-Yu Jin.

Each chapter begins with a personal reminiscence by either a famous champion or a notable IOC figure. Detailed background is provided to the many crises: the Nazi Games of 1936; the massacre at Mexico City in 1968; the terrorist slaughter of Israelis at the 1972 Munich Games; the boycotts; the advent of professionals from 1988; and the Ben Johnson scandal and the ongoing threat of drug abuse.

As the sporting world awaits, with eager expectation, the 2008 Games in Beijing, this official history gives an unparalleled account of the story so far

‘Miller joins gymnast Nadia Comaneci with his own series of “perfect tens”. A great book’ – Bud Greenspan, main Olympic film director and producer

‘Will become the standard work on the subject’

– The Times

‘Handsomely illustrated and painstakingly researched’

– The Observer

Pagination: 560pp Hardback; ISBN 9781845961596 Cost: £35.00 Sport

David Miller has been a journalist since 1956 and has covered 16 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. He is the former chief sports correspondent of The Times and currently writes for the Daily Telegraph.