There is a compelling story in a young man's rise from the rural middle class of south Kilkenny to being one of our finest sportsmen. He became much more than a hurler ... This memoir is cast in its author's likeness, honest but tactful, direct without being brusque

Shefflin...gives interesting insights into the mentality and culture which have powered the most dominant team in Irish men's sports over the last 15 years. He is also very honest about himself.

The penalty shootout is like a lottery; you never know what can happen, though I know that there is an outstanding book, Twelve Yards, that proves otherwise.

A wonderful book: extremely well-researched, well-written and international in its scope. Ben Lyttleton has done something very rare in football writing: he has got access to some of the game's leading players and coaches and got them to talk articulately and thoughtfully about a key aspect of their game. Twelve Yards reveals the level of intelligence that exists within professional football:­ a more cerebral zone than many people realize.

The perfect palliative to ease the anxiety of footie fans, aficionados and players... With the aid of statistics, physics, psychology, body language and interviews with players, coaches and sports scientists, Lyttleton has advice and words of comfort, if not joy.

A vivid read... Lyttleton appears to have spoken to everybody who's ever taken part in a penalty shoot-out of any significance. As a result, he serves up an almost endless series of terrific set-pieces.

Brilliant... Twelve Yards is a book every England player should read.

Glorious... Lyttleton's book goes into remarkable detail in an attempt to find a solution, to do for England and penalties what Freud wanted to do for the human condition by transforming neurotic misery into normal human unhappiness.

Fascinating.

Excellent.

Could not be better.

Very good... a readable study of an almost unknowable art. Lyttleton's scope is nothing if not wide.

Great book… might make me take a penalty one day.

Superb… full of great insight

Tim Moore is a serial cyclist who loves to do things the hard way… His blackly comic account of his adventures will convince you that extreme cycling is best appreciated in anecdotal form

Filled with laugh-out-loud scenes and witty comments, alongside serious reflections on the consequences of the Communist dream and reminders of how disparate Europe still remains, this book was difficult to put down

He is quite, quite bonkers - and very funny

Brilliant, bruising

This is so much more than the story of their journey – it’s a superbly written, endlessly fascinating book encompassing history, geology, landscape, family memories, wars experienced and lives well lived.

One of the most unexpected and enjoyable reads of 2016… The book fizzes erudition and is delightfully leavened by the companionship of his aged and doughty father.

A very funny book - not jovial in the post-Wodehouse Boris mode but something more taught and Caledonian... The politician in Stewart never had a chance against the writer, a reliable adversary of consensus and cant.

Beautiful, evocative, and wise.

The Marches is a transporting work from a powerful and original writer.

This beautifully written account is a moving memoir of tales from along the route but also reflections on life and relationships – father and son on this their last journey together.

Rory Stewart is one of the most talented men of our era. The Marches takes us from Rory’s constituency to his family house is an attempt to understand the bloody history of the Scottish borders… The quest is fascinating even if the answers are elusive.

As the book unfurls, the march along the marches turns into a eulogy to his father, part memoir, part biography, always a love story. It also contains one of the most unflinching, moving descriptions of death I have read.

This beautifully written book is a haunting reflection of identity and our relationships with the people and places we love.

Stewart provides much food for thought about how we value our past history