Outdoors Memoirs

One of rugby’s most ferocious flankers and biggest characters, James Haskell has had an extraordinary, global experience of the game, having played for the Lions, Wasps, England and in New Zealand, France and Japan . After 17 years and with 77 international caps under his sizeable belt, he has a shitload to say about rugby life - from pitch to pub and everywhere in between. In What a Flanker, Haskell sheds fresh light on the dynamics and the day-to-day of the game.

Joey Dunlop's story is one of towering triumphs and desperate tragedies in almost equal measure. Born poor—dirt poor—with no running water, no electricity, he was the definition of the everyman hero, earning the title 'King of the Roads' in what must be considered one of the world's most extreme sports—motorcycle road racing. And as well as being voted Northern Ireland's greatest ever sportsman, he remains the most loved and most successful road racer of all time.

The Boxing Kings tells the story of the heavyweight title in the days when it was a defining institution in the United States. Author Paul Beston places special emphasis on those champions who held a central place in American culture beyond just in the boxing ring, including John L. Sullivan, who made the title a commercial property; Jack Johnson, who in 1908 became the first black man to claim the title; Joe Louis, whose contributions to racial tolerance and social progress transcended even his greatness in the ring; and many more.

In the 1930s and 1940s, there was nothing bigger in Texas high school football than the Masonic Home Mighty Mites - a group of orphans bound together by hardship and death. These youngsters, in spite of being outweighed by at least 30 pounds per man, were the toughest football team around. They began with nothing - not even a football - yet in a few years were playing for the state championship on the highest level of Texas football. This is a winning tribute to a courageous band of underdogs from a time when America desperately needed fresh hope and big dreams.

Nate Jackson’s Slow Getting Up is an unvarnished and uncensored memoir of everyday life in the most popular sports league in America - and the most damaging to its players - the National Football League. After playing college ball at a tiny Division III school, Jackson, a receiver, signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers, before moving to the Denver Broncos. For six seasons in the NFL as a Bronco, he alternated between the practice squad and the active roster, eventually winning a starting spot - a short, tenuous career emblematic of the average pro player.

Johan Bruyneel knows what it takes to win. In 1998, this calculating Belgian and former professional cyclist looked Lance Armstrong in the eye and said, "Look, if were going to ride the Tour, we might as well win." In that powerful phrase a dynasty was born.

On 27th February 2022, after 170 matches in charge, promotion to the Premier League and some of the most exhilarating football the English game has ever seen, Leeds United parted company with their most beloved and successful manager in a generation: Marcelo Bielsa. His parting gift was to embrace the crowds of adoring fans who turned up to say thank you as he left the club's training ground for the final time.

Bass Wars: A Story of Fishing, Fame, and Fortune follows professional B.A.S.S fisherman for a year in 1986. The book provides an insider's view of the tournament circuit, the star fishermen, and the want-to-be stars as they compete to catch bass and win big prizes. The book also tells the story of how Ray Scott founded the Bass Angler Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) and launched a series of tournaments that created a new brand of sports hero: the professional bass fisherman.

In The Last of His Kind, renowned adventure writer David Roberts gives readers a spellbinding history of mountain climbing in the twentieth century as told through the biography of Brad Washburn, legendary mountaineering pioneer and photographer. Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, has praised David Roberts, saying, “Nobody alive writes better about mountaineering” - and nowhere is that truth more evident than in this breathtaking account of the life and exploits of America’s greatest mountain climber.

George Sephton's relationship with Liverpool Football Club began in 1971 when he wrote to the club secretary applying to be the stadium announcer. His first match also marked the debut of Kevin Keegan. For the past 50 years, Sephton has been at Anfield for all but a handful of home fixtures, as well as travelling with the team to major finals. From the highs of winning numerous league titles and European Cups, to the lows of Heysel and Hillsborough, Sephton has been with Liverpool through it all.

At age 47, a mother of two, Debbie Moderow was not your average musher in the Iditarod, but that's where she found herself when, less than 200 miles from the finish line, her dogs decided they didn't want to run anymore. After all her preparation, after all the careful management of her team, and after their running so well for over a week, the huskies balked. But the sting of not completing the race after coming so far was nothing compared to the disappointment Moderow felt in having lost touch with her dogs.

In his memoir Son of Bum, decorated NFL coach Wade Phillips shows that the roots of his knowledge come from his father, Bum Phillips. A beloved character in NFL history, Bum taught Wade from the beginning that "coaching isn't bitching", as well as how to have perspective on the game during tough times. These are lessons that apply both on the field and off, and Wade has passed this wisdom down to his son, Wes Phillips, an NFL coach himself.

At the age of 55, record-breaking ultrarunner Mimi Anderson embarked on her most ambitious adventure yet. She wanted to become the fastest woman in history to run across America from Los Angeles to New York. For 40 days, the determined mother of three pushed herself on and on for more than 2,000 miles across the vast continent, despite the onset of severe pain, until she was forced to make a crushing decision: carry on and risk never being able to run again, or give up on her all-time goal.

In Larry Bird: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Forwards, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's premier forwards, Larry Bird. Larry Bird had a profound impact on the Boston Celtics' franchise throughout the 1980s, leading the franchise to three NBA Championships. With an extraordinary ability as a two-way player, Bird was gritty, full of heart, and the definition of a superstar.

One man and his home-built, two-wheeled machine competing in an illegal, outlaw chopper motorcycle road race across America known as The Stampede. His motorcycle is a true ugly, unpopular style of chopper with no frills, chrome, or shocks running hard from west to east as fast as possible - without stopping. Middle age is approaching. His life has taken a dramatic turn lately with his wife divorcing him, children scattering, a new younger girlfriend in the picture, and a mistress that fills his mind. Time in the saddle running on his own road is just what he needs.

When boxing was bold, bright, and glamorous and the fights were the hottest sporting events of the year, Joe Frazier was king as the Heavyweight Champion of the World. From 1970 to 1973 he reigned. With a career record of 32-4-1 with twenty-seven knockouts and an Olympic gold medal, Frazier leaves little question that he was one of the greatest fighters of all time.

In the summer of 2012, a team of six climbers set out to attempt the first ascent of one of the great unclimbed lines of the Himalaya - the giant Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain. At 10 kilometers in length, the Mazeno is the longest route to the summit of an 8,000-meter peak. Ten expeditions had tried and failed to climb this enormous ridge.

Richard Bresler was Rorion Gracie's first student in LA, and is widely recognized as the first student of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in the US. His memoir, Worth Defending, chronicles his over 40 years' involvement with the Gracie family and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, including the almost 20 years he spent working closely alongside Rorion helping to grow Jiu-Jitsu through the Gracie Garages, the challenge matches, the founding of the Gracie Academy, and the inception of the UFC.

Narrated in his own voice, in this third book about his travels aboard the 28-foot sailboat Atom, James Baldwin creates an ode to the sea and to those who venture upon her in small voyaging sailboats. The Next Distant Sea continues the memoir of his second adventurous circumnavigation as begun in his earlier book Bound for Distant Seas.

For years Geraint Thomas appeared blessed with extraordinary talent but jinxed at the greatest bike race in the world: twice an Olympic gold medallist on the track, Commonwealth champion, yet at the Tour de France a victim of crashes, bad luck and his willingness to sacrifice himself for his teammates. In the summer of 2018, that curse was blown away in spectacular fashion - from the cobbles of the north and the iconic mountain climbs of the Alps to the brutal slopes of the Pyrenees and, finally, the Champs-Elysees in Paris.