With football madman George Best AWOL on the eve of sports' biggest occasion, BBC producers need another colourful pundit to fill the ratings void for their Mexico '86 coverage. Far down their list is forgotten ex-England footballer Sam 'Rolls' Royce. Along with being a womanising drunkard who all the tabloids used to fawn over, the only box he ticks is that he's been AWOL in Acapulco for the last decade and they can save themselves a flight.Out of practice with having a job, or ev...

Joey Rippa is one of the most naturally gifted footballers England's Second Division has ever seen. He's also one of the least interested in that fact.When Plymouth Argyle's pre-season tour brings him back to his homeland, Australia, for the first time since leaving his beloved Merri Bay, Rippa arrives late, sunburnt, and carrying an impressive holiday paunch. His long-suffering manager Bobby Noll - the man who discovered him surfing a wave in Western Australia and somehow turned h...

It's 1989 and a surf-loving Aussie teenager flukes a dream move to an English footballing giant. Problem is, it's never been his dream, and in the brutal big leagues he has a fight on his hands to ensure his laidback life doesn't turn into one giant nightmare.Before Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Tim Cahill became household names in English football, and once Craig Johnston retired, there was another Aussie name on every football fan's lips.Rippa - Joey Rippa.

It's January 1989. Neighbours rules the screens, Madchester bosses the airwaves, Lineker, Barnes, Gazza and Co are lording it on the football field, and there's a fresh wave of optimism breezing through the nation.Not everyone's happy though.Thomas Bamford, known disparagingly to all as Tam Bam, is an angry man. He may have pride in his hometown on the Isle of Guff - situated 30 miles off Cornwall - but he hates everyone on it. And the feeling's mutual as he's spent most of...

He arrived to rally the troops, the main man in the Inter City Firm and his greeting passed into football fan history. 'Afternoon, gentlemen, the name's Bill Gardner.' That introduction alone was often enough to provoke sheer terror in his opponents. He is a genuine legend to anyone who's ever stood proud on a football terrace. No serious book on the culture would be complete without at least one mention of him. And now at last, he's telling his own, long-awaited story. For the first time,...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘Hilarious, and straight talking but also articulate and insightful – I am just hugely fond of this guy’–Eddie Jones‘James Haskell: what a flanker, what a book’–Rugby World‘I’d like to be remembered as a player who showed that you can be incredibly professional but also a lot of fun – a bit of a joker in the changing room, but the ul...

Carl Hester is one of the greatest ever equestrians, leading Great Britain to Gold Medal victory at the London 2012 Olympics. In these vibrant memoirs, he tells the incredible story of the passion for horse-riding which revolutionised his life and made him the champion he is today.Carl grew up on the remote Channel Island of Sark, moving to the UK mainland at the age of 16 to work with horses, mainly as a way to leave home. He could never have predicted what a great affinity he wou...

As England's cricket team compete for the Ashes in Australia, ex-England spinner Phil Tufnell is enjoying life as a retired cricketer and national treasure. When the sporting legend hung up his cricket boots back in 2003, little did he know the dramatic direction his professional life would take next.Yet since being crowned 'King of the Jungle', the ex-England spin bowler has never looked back and has become a much loved television and radio presenter. Cricket's dr...

From the boxing clubs of 1970s East London to the celebrity haunts of Hollywood the acclaimed actor offers a memoir with "gripping insight into his youth" ( Telegraph, UK).Ray Winstone's amazing talent for bringing out the humanity of his tough-guy screen characters—a violent offender in Scum, a wife-beater in Nil by Mouth, and a retired robber in Sexy Beast to name just a few—has made him one of the most charismatic actors of hi...

In rugby, there are the Flash Harrys and the Glory Boys: the fly-halves who run, kick and dazzle; the scrum-halves who nip and dart; the wingers who step and glide. These are the players who get the crowd on their feet, who set stadiums abuzz.But they only get to do these things because other, less glorified figures do all of the donkey work. Adam Jones is one such figure. And for a decade he was one of the world's best.On many occasions when George North or Shane Williams ...

⭐ THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ⭐'EVERYTHING AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY SHOULD BE AND MORE' MAIL ON SUNDAYBanjo player. Apprentice welder. Amateur fisherman. Hollywood actor. International rambling man. Cancer survivor. Talented artist. Award-winning comedian. National treasure. Living legend . . .Sir Billy Connolly is many things. But what is the secret to his windswept and interesting life?In his NUMBER ONE BES...

An anecdote-driven narrative of the classic footballer's ‘DOs and DO NOTs’ from the ever-popular Arsenal legend and football pundit Paul Merson, aka ‘The Merse’.When it comes to advice on the pitfalls of life as a professional footballer, Paul Merson can pretty much write the manual. In fact, that's exactly what he's done in this hilarious new book which manages to be simultaneously poignant and gloriously funny.Merson was a prodigiously talented footballer in the 80s and 9...