A Sports Book of the Year in the Irish Times, the FT and the Mail on Sunday**'T**he ultimate book for anyone who loves football, and plenty who don't ... Unmissable' Mail on Sunday'Kuper is a wry and sharp-eyed guide' New Statesman'A brilliant evocation of the joy of the football carnival and the absurdities of the global spectacle... an essential companion' David...

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024A Waterstones Best History Book of 2024 Pick'Kuper is a shrewd observer [in] this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology' The Sunday TimesFrom the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.

WINNER OF THE FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Més que un book!' - GARY LINEKERFrom the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance.Barça is not just the world's most popular sports club, it ...

The classic bestseller that changed how the world thinks about football'Quite magnificent – a sort of Freakanomics of football.' Jonathan Wilson, Guardian**'If you're a football fan, I'll save you some time: read this book' Daily Telegraph__________Football truly is the world’s favourite game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people pourin...

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024'At a time when democracy feels threatened, Simon Kuper is fighting hard for a better vision of politics - he is brutally honest about our problems but never loses hope that we can build a better democracy' Rory Stewart'An intelligible, compelling and enraging narrative ... how the Good Chaps get away with it' New StatesmanThe 'Good Chaps' theory holds that th...

Now with a new chapter on the end of the chumocracy era - and Oxford's upcoming elite for 2050.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022A TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BEST BOOK OF 2023Power. Privilege. Parties.It's a very small world at the top.'Brilliant ... traces Brexit back to the debating chambers of the Oxford Union ...

The great footballers and coaches are rarely glimpsed from up close. They shield themselves from the tabloids, hide their personalities behind professionalism, and in the words of the cliché, 'do their talking on the pitch'.This book gets up close to them. The Football Menis not a series of celebrity profiles, and it doesn't attempt to unearth secrets in the players' private lives. Rather, it portrays these men as three-dimensional human beings. It describes their upbringings, the ...

'GREAT' Independent'TERRIFIC' Guardian'WONDERFUL' Time Out'QUALITY' Mail on Sunday'DEFINITIVE' FourFourTwoWinner of the William Hill Sports Book AwardFeatured in FourFourTwo's list of 'The 10 Best Football Books Ever'Featured in Esquire's 'Best Sports Bo...

'A deeply human read, wonderfully written, on the foibles of a fascinating, flawed, treacherous and sort of likeable character.' Philippe SandsThose people who were betrayed were not innocent people. They were no better nor worse than I am. It's all part of the intelligence world. If the man who turned me in came to my house today, I'd invite him to sit down and have a cup of tea.George Blake was the last remaining Cold War spy. As a Senior Officer...

'Football history at its best' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY'Hugely moving... a very good book indeed' FOUR FOUR TWO'Kuper is an original, sophisticated and adventurous writer. The story he has to tell... is fascinating and pressing' SUNDAY TIMESIn FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY Simon Kuper crossed the globe in search of the links between football, politics and culture. In AJAX, THE DUTCH, THE WAR he skilfully pieces together an a...

A passionate, haunting and moving work that tells the breathtaking story of how Dutch Jews survived the unspeakable and came to play a strong role in the rise of the most exciting and revolutionary style of soccer -- "Total Football" -- the world had ever seen.When most people think about the Netherlands, images of tulips and peaceful pot smoking residents spring to mind. Bring up soccer, and most will think of Johan Cruyff, the Dutch player thought to rival Pele i...

The European Union’s origins lie in the ruins of World War Two. This war inflicted huge psychological damage and everyone came to the same conclusion: no more war!European integration proved a successful tool for realising this deep-seated need. Now, 60 years on, the tool appears to have lost its effectiveness. A large section of the population is worried about the EU’s common policies. Will the Greeks ever pay back those billions? Will immigrants ever really integrate?For ...