A thorough, well-researched and highly readable biography about one of cycling's best ever riders

One of cycling’s most fascinating characters

The emphasis is not on Ali the warrior. His triumphs are touched on, but it is a softer side of the man that shows through... This book affirms the essential decency we always saw in the man

The noted boxer offers words of inspiration and reflection on his long career... There are insights here from Ali on his obstacles and heartbreaks, as well as his well-noted victories

This is a motivational book in which Ali uses his life story to illustrate the importance of humanity, self-belief and love. It possesses humour and at times is also moving. Ali maintains an honesty, speaking for example about his regrets for turning his back on his friend Malcolm X in the 1960s, as well as his over-the-top verbal badgering of Joe Frazier

Fascinating for any sports fan and truly a gold mine for Arsenal supporters

A fascinating and engrossing read from start to finish. Provides wonderful insight and anecdotes as well as revealing the dynamics and determination from within the dressing room

I picked it up and couldn't put it down. Brilliantly depicts a piece of football history

This is research at its riveting best. My only complaint about the book is that it had to end

If you were there in 71 and/or 2004, buy the book. If only now do you appreciate that we probably had four of the six best payers on the planet back then, buy the book and read their words. Let me make it simple. If you are an Arsenal supporter, buy the book

This is a book that contains some of the most evocative prose I have encountered in a book about football and without doubt solidifies Lawrence's place in the very top tier of sports writing in English. The story and characters are fascinating enough, but it is how they come to life and dance in Lawrence's writing that makes this book such a wonderful telling of an incredible tale

Lawrence is a writer who will help the reader to appreciate the football on the pitch with an understanding of how the game is played few can match. At the same time she never fails to appreciate the passion that makes us fans

A gripping account of Arsenal's undefeated title winning season of 2003/4

Hooked: from opening lob to final shot

Skidelsky explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom, weaving his own past into the story

Excellent

One of the areas in which Lister really does a fantastic job is balance of opinion. The author has his own views, some more common sense than others, but he gives column inches to all sides of a story and allows everyone a chance to state their case… here's an excellent balance between sport and life. It gives great insight into some fascinating individuals and doesn't shirk the big issues. It's comprehensive, an easy read and never overstays its welcome… This book is a must read for the cricket fan out there, full of interesting stories, tales from the tour and a really close look at one of the best sporting outfits of all-time.

Cowen is without doubt one of our best current writers on landscape, on a par with Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey and Robert MacFarlane

Wonderful … An eerie haunting book … rendered with hair-raising, almost hallucinogenic, lyricism. Cowen moves on through the seasons of the year and the creatures of the edge land, feeling, more than observing, how the improving circumstances of animal life mirror his own climb out of darkness.

Blending natural history with a novelistic approach, Cowen revives his connection to the evocative, mysterious power of the natural world.

A luminous nature book

Very beautiful indeed... [Cowen] has all the alliterative grace and fresh metaphors of a poet

[A] poetic memoir... This apparently scrappy and overlooked piece of wasteland - a tangle of wood, meadow, field and river - proves to be, under [Cowen's] forensic and magnifying gaze, brimming with riches.

He is engrossed by his landscape, enthralled by the minutiae and evokes the same fascination in the reader