English Football has over 92 fully professional clubs. Players in the Premier League teams now earn an average salary of £2.3 million per annum. Meanwhile, on the bottom rung, entire squads make less in a year than Wayne Rooney takes home in a month. An army of young players sacrifice their education and prospects outside of sport for the dream of football success, despite that fact that 85% will be released from their contracts within five years. Simon Akam's book shows what the beautiful...

'Inspiring' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down'Fascinating and useful' - Joe Moran, author of First You Write A SentenceBestselling and award-winning authors share the secrets to their success, and the hard lessons they have learnt along the way.Where do the best ideas come from? How do you stay motivated? What does it take to become a published author? And how do you actually make money from your wr...

In this compendium of literary wisdom, celebrated authors share insights and anecdotes on the art of turning good stories into bestsellers.Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, hosts of the renowned podcast Always Take Notes, have spent years delving into the lives and minds of literary luminaries. Now they share the most illuminating and unforgettable interview moments, as writers from Irvine Welsh to Tracy Chevalier and Marlon James reveal the secrets to their su...

A sweeping history of ski mountaineering and the author’s quest to complete its most challenging race: the Patrouille des Glaciers in the AlpsGod of skis, protect us.Simon Akam fell in love with ski mountaineering as a teenager and was happiest above the snowline—until a brush with disaster in the Caucasus mountains sent him into a prolonged mental collapse. The only way to regain control of his anxious, spiraling mind, he decided, was to return to the moun...

'Inspiring' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down'Fascinating and useful' - Joe Moran, author of First You Write A SentenceBestselling and award-winning authors share the secrets to their success, and the hard lessons they have learnt along the way.Where do the best ideas come from? How do you stay motivated? What does it take to become a published author? And how do you actually make money from your wr...

“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”—OutsideNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDThe Secret ...

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the YearNCAA football is big business. Every Saturday millions of people file into massive stadiums or tune in on television as "athlete-students" give everything they've got to make their team a success. Billions of dollars now flow into the game. But what is the true cost? The players have no share in the oceans of money. And once the lights go down, the glitter doesn't shine so brightly. Filled with mind-blowing details of major NCAA football scand...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season Inside presents a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional tennis, with in-depth analyses of players, tournaments, and the inner machinations of the sport.“Hard Courts is the best book on professional tennis that I’ve ever read. . . . You won’t feel the same about the game—guaranteed.”—LARRY KINGWhen I first decided to write a book on te...

It was a blustery late spring day in 1954 and a young Oxford medical student flung himself over the line in a mile race. There was an agonising pause, and then the timekeeper announced the record: three minutes, fifty-nine point four seconds. But no one heard anything after that first word - 'three'. One of the most iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. To this day, more men have conquered Mount Everest t...

A fascinating portrait of the National Football League, the Super Bowl, and all the position players who come together to create the biggest cultural phenomenon in American sports.Think the Super Bowl is only about two teams of titans clashing on the field? Think again. The Super Bowl is about fans, hundreds of millions of fans. It’s about money, more money than the GDP of twenty-five sovereign nations. It’s about precision, the timing of everything from the notorious commercials t...

"The ultimate chronicle of the games behind the game."—The New York Times Book ReviewBaseball has always inspired rhapsodic elegies on the glory of man and golden memories of wonderful times. But what you see on the field is only half the game.In this fascinating, colorful chronicle—based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging—John Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America's fa...

With all-new reporting, a completely revised and updated second edition of the bestseller that takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Divsiion I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship...