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Man and Ball
Man and Ball
Mar 24, 2025 8:50 AM

Author:Stephen Ferris

Man and Ball

SHORTLISTED FOR RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS

'When I came into the Ulster team,' Stephen Ferris says with typical candour, 'we were crap'. It was, however, preferable to his day job of paving driveways, and that day in 2005 saw the start of an incredible journey for Ferris, Ulster and Ireland rugby. A Celtic League title in his very first senior season with Ulster. A Grand Slam in 2009, followed by a sensational Lions breakthrough. A starring role in Ireland's greatest World Cup win, over Australia in 2011, when Ferris famously picked up Will Genia and carried him ten yards. And leading Ulster from nowhere to the Heineken Cup final.

Stephen Ferris had an incredible rugby career, tragically ended by ankle injuries so severe they will never properly heal. He is an inspiration to the population of Ulster, an emblem of the sport that serves as such a positive expression of its culture and identity, and earned the respect and admiration of fans across Ireland for his strength, pace, skill and courage. Fearless, funny and full of an incredible array of stories from behind the scenes of Ulster, Ireland and the Lions, this is the must-have rugby book of the year.

Reviews

Written in a colloquial style that reassures you this is Ferris's story in his own words, this is a cracking read... compelling.

—— Rugby World, Book of the Month

Painfully funny

—— Tim Dowling , Week

A wonderfully written, extremely funny book... You read Gironimo! with a permanent smile on your face

—— UK Press Syndication

A superbly funny read

—— Cycling Weekly

Readers of Moore’s French Revolutions will not be disappointed by this hilariously painful, and poignant, adventure

—— Anna Carey , Irish Times

Gironimo! is partly a story of adversity, despair, and tenacity – and partly a funny, and often sweary, travelogue. I was hooked from the start

—— Seamus Kelly , Cycle

Absurd, inspirational and laugh-out-loud funny, Gironimo! Is a charming tribute to the dogged resilience of the amateur spirit and a golden age of road cycling

—— Tom Kerr , Racing Post

Part travelogue, part sports record and part history and all written with his inimitable humour

—— By the Dart

Gironimo is the perfect successor to French Revolutions, and provides more of everything that made the latter so popular

—— Cycling World

The author’s adventures are often highly entertaining, though, as “road-trip” literature, it is unusual in that it mostly makes the reader glad not to be on the road!

—— Good Book Guide

Insightful and witty

—— Cycle Sport

It’s just exciting to read

—— Toby Neal , Shropshire Star

As dark and funny as anything I have read this year

—— Washington Post

Kerry Howley embarks on a quest for ecstasy delivered in an unexpected forum: MMA fights. This transfixing nonfiction narrative combines bloody play-by-play with philosophical inquiry, delivering serious punches. Welcome to the Octagon

—— Playboy

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

—— Gransnet

Excellent

—— Andy Bull , Observer

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.

—— Wexford People

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

—— Solitary Walker blog

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.

—— Brian Bethune , Maclean's

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

—— Sunday Express

A luminous nature book

—— Arminta Wallace , Irish Times

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

—— Rebecca Foster , New Books

[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.

—— Ruth Campbell , Northern Echo

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

—— Daily Mail
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