Written with great pace and lightness, Speed Kings will enthral anyone who loved Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat.

A tale of exceptional sporting bravery... genuinely thrilling. A gripping yarn.

A wonderful story, told in marvellous style.

A rich slice of history about courage and nobility... irresistible personalities. Unlike so many of his peers Fiske saw Nazism early for what it was. He became the first American to join the RAF, flying in the Battle of Britain. This is what makes him worthy of Bull's affectionate attention. It's also what gives the book its cohesion and its last act, which is far more moving than you have a right to expect given all the fun that precedes it. Fiske stays with you. He's the superhero you wish you'd been.

If there's any justice, the winner of the 2015 William Hill Sports Book of the Year will be Andy Bull's Speed Kings which tells the story of the four larger-than-life characters who won bobsleigh Olympic gold at Lake Placid in 1932. The enormous research needed to bring to life the quartet has been a remarkable feat.

A marvellous study of the heroes of between-the-wars Olympic bobsleigh. By the time we meet Baron Walther von Mumm, we are two-thirds of the way through Andy Bull's account, and more or less convinced that we are being guided through the backstory to the famous party scene in The Great Gatsby. Hollywood stars, politicians, royalty, gangsters and other denizens of the demi-monde - hedonists and hucksters, harlots and heroes - flicker through a well-paced narrative... Such is the diligence of his research and his sensitivity to the story in all its many dimensions that few could feel that he has not done justice to their world.

A remarkable story.

Intriguing and impressively researched... a literary Chariots of Fire multiplied by two.

As entertaining an adventure story as most great novels... compelling. It brings alive true life characters who lived with grit, courage and determination.

The research undertaken to bring these four characters to life is phenomenal.

Sport means more when there's a whiff of death in the air... each member of the team has a story worth savouring.

A compelling read.

A must read

Dub-Sub Confidential has already become a sort of handbook for anyone in sport struggling with mental health issues, and for good reason: not many footballers will openly confess to double-popping pills or turning up for training half blitzed. Yet Leonard is clearly in a better place now.

Searingly honest; funny and sad at the same time

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