Author:Ned Boulting
Join Ned Boulting as he reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we’re oft told, the biggest annual sporting event in the world.
101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorkshire, even some stunning scenery not far from Bradford).
From Leeds to Paris (how often do you say that?), Ned details the minutiae of his encounters with the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, David Millar, Chris Froome, Chris Boardman (or ‘Broadman’ as some would have it), Marcel Kittel, Mrs Cavendish (Mark’s wife), Peter Sagan and the rest. Their endeavours, achievements, humour and occasional rancour, sit alongside his own decade-long quest for the ideal end-of-race T-shirt.
Ned weaves together the interesting, amusing and unheralded threads of the race itself, and reflects on his own perennial struggle to get round, get on and get by. 101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth.
Boulting’s behind-the-scenes tales provide a unique experience that won’t be found elsewhere
—— Nick Bull , Cycling WeeklyThis is easily Ned Boulting's finest work to date…there is a maturity of writing here that raises the author several levels above that of (mere) pundit
—— Washing Machine PostYou can’t hide Boulting’s genuine almost innocent enthusiasm for the sport and the Tour de France
—— Cycling UphillIf you’re a cycling fan looking to stay in touch with the summer as daylight dims, 101 Damnations will keep the madness and majesty of the Tour de France close
—— Bike Radar101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth
—— Sports PinkA joy to read both for the memories and a vision of what sport could be minus the commercial overdrive and corrupt governance
—— Mark Perryman , Huffington Post UKThis is a worthy successor to Ned Boulting's other books; entertaining, informative, and often funny
—— Richard Peploe , RoadDispatches from the 101st Tour de France, 101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles
—— Cycling WeeklyExamines the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom
—— NationalIt’s a dry comic look at devotion to sport
—— Forever SportsThis is tennis’s answer to Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch… The book is particularly strong on Federer’s place in tennis history
—— Simon Kuper , Financial TimesVery enjoyable biography-cum-autobiography...this is a good book. Skidelsky has a feel for words, for the length of sentences and for tennis. The “sporty one” has finally proved himself
—— Simon Kuper , New StatesmanThought-provoking and beautifully written, Federer and Me is a frank, funny and touching account of one fan’s life
—— Miss DinkyHooked: from opening lob to final shot
—— Kevin Mitchell , ObserverSkidelsky explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom, weaving his own past into the story
—— GransnetDickinson is tender to the memory of the Essex lad who, for a breathtaking instant, was glorious
—— Ain Finlayson and Kate Saunders , Saga MagazineMatt's work is the most impressive West Ham book of the year, a genuine and sincere attempt to get to the root of the man. It is an excellent, thought-provoking book
—— Knees Up Mother BrownA compelling and complete account
—— SportIn The Man in Full, acclaimed football writer Matt Dickinson traces the journey of this Essex boy, peeling away the layers of legend and looking at Moore’s life from all sides – in triumph, in failure, in full
—— Bert Wright , NudgeOutstanding... this excellent biography comes very close to describing the real Bobby Moore
—— PostAn exquisitely written study of light in the works of various poets and painters.
—— Daily TelegraphA wonderful literary meditation… This book is suffused with vivid personal memory and precise, delicate observation of Nature. Wroe’s feeling for landscape is both sensitive and acute; her style is lyrical and precise.
—— Hugo Davenport , Resurgence and EcologistA book for winter.
—— Honor Clerk , Spectator, Books of the YearPeople of faith talk a great deal about light, and we would do well to learn more about it from Wroe’s quick-eyed love of it.
—— Mark Oakley , Church TimesWroe passes her elusive subject, light itself, through the prism of her dazzlingly well-read mind, and the resulting rainbows fairly dance across the page… An utterly original book that will leave you, in every sense of the word, enlightened.
—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday Times, Book of the YearAnn Wroe’s Six Facets of Light is a fascinating and original meditation [on light]. Six Facets of Light is an exquisite collage of relations, a prose poem to “what escaped” absolutely everyone – and to how madly, brilliantly, they tried to “be in step”.
—— Joanna Kavenna , Times Literary Supplement