Library: Reading for Pleasure: Sports biographies

Stronger together

This month we focus on team sports, where shared goals, trust and determination lead to unforgettable moments.

Football - Bloody hell! by Patrick Barclay
ISBN: 9780224083072

Publication Date: 2011-09-01

Sir Alex Ferguson is the most controversial and compelling figure in football. For many he ranks as the greatest manager of all time. He is certainly the most successful.
It's been more than ten years since Ferguson's Manchester United triumphed over Bayern Munich in the dying seconds of the Champions League final. Since then he has presided over the rise and fall and rise again of José Mourinho; the arrival and departure of the world's best player, Ronaldo; the removal of one English talisman - Beckham - and the irresistible instalment of another - Rooney. Ferguson has been instrumental in making the Premier League the most successful competition in football, and he has endured while the mountains of cash have turned to valleys of debt.
Throughout, award-winning journalist Patrick Barclay has been pitch-side and spoken to all those who know Ferguson best - fellow managers, former players, colleagues and commentators. The result is Football - Bloody Hell!: the definitive work on the game's greatest living legend.
The Test by Brian O'Driscoll
ISBN: 9780241962688

Publication Date: 2015-04-02

Since 1999, when he made his international debut, there has been no greater player in world rugby than Brian O'Driscoll. In 2010 Rugby World magazine named him its world player of the decade - and since then the legend has only grown.
Now, at the end of his amazing career - which culminated in fairy-tale fashion with Ireland's victory in the 2014 Six Nations championship - he tells his own story. Honest, gritty and thoughtful, Brian O'Driscoll's Autobiography is not just an essential sports book. It is an essential book about family, friends, hard work, courage and imagination.
Jonny by Jonny Wilkinson
ISBN: 9780755313402

Publication Date: 2012-05-10

Jonny Wilkinson's career has crossed three decades and four World Cups. He has accumulated phenomenal achievements, world points records, an impressive list of broken body parts, and a drop goal that will be remembered for ever. But the peculiar calmness with which he played the game masked a very different reality. In JONNY, he reveals the extraordinary psychology that he had to tame in order to be able to dominate his sport. For most of his life, he was driven by a quest for perfection and an obsession to be the best player in the world; here he shows how these two facets of his competitive mind took such a hold of him that they sent him to the top of the world, then swept him up and dragged him down into a spiral of despair. Jonny's career has spanned the far reaches: amazing highs and iconic moments, then a fight against injury that culminated in a battle with depression. Here he tells of the physical toll he knew his body was taking from rugby, even from his youth; he tells of how he never wanted to be a kicking fly-half but learned to adapt his natural game to play the style that Clive Woodward believed necessary to win a World Cup, and how he nearly walked out on Martin Johnson's England team 13 years later.
A clear blue sky by Jonny Bairstow
ISBN: 9780008232696

Publication Date: 2018-05-17

As a young boy of eight, Jonny Bairstow was dealt a cruel blow. His father David ‘Bluey’ Bairstow, the combative and very popular wicketkeeper and captain of Yorkshire, took his own life at the age of forty-six. David left behind Jonny, Jonny’s sister Becky and half-brother Andy, and his wife Janet, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer at the time of his death. From these incredibly tough circumstances, Jonny and his family strived to find an even keel and come to terms with the loss of their father and husband.
Jonny found his way through his dedication to sport. He was a gifted and natural athlete, with potential careers ahead of him in rugby and football, but he eventually chose cricket and came to build a career that followed in his father’s footsteps, eventually reaching the pinnacle of the sport and breaking the record for most Test runs in a year by a wicketkeeper.
Written with multiple-award-winning writer Duncan Hamilton, this is an incredible story of triumph over adversity and a memoir with far-reaching lessons about determination and the will to overcome.
Playing It My Way by Sachin Tendulkar
ISBN: 9781473605176

Publication Date: 2016-01-12

The story of the greatest cricket player of all time, told in his own words.
The greatest run-scorer in the history of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 after an astonishing 24 years at the top. The most celebrated Indian cricketer of all time, he received the Bharat Ratna Award - India's highest civilian honour - on the day of his retirement. Now Sachin Tendulkar tells his own remarkable story - from his first Test cap at the age of 16 to his 100th international century and the emotional final farewell that brought his country to a standstill.

Bobby Moore

Bobby Moore is remembered as one of England’s greatest footballers and a true leader on and off the pitch. Best known as captain of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, Moore’s calm authority, tactical awareness, and unshakable composure made him an outstanding central defender and an inspiration to his teammates.

Moore spent most of his club career at West Ham United, where he made over 500 appearances and helped the team win the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965. Renowned for his ability to read the game rather than rely on physicality, he epitomised how intelligence and teamwork can overcome individual skill alone. His leadership style was built on respect and collaboration, earning him the trust and admiration of those around him.

After leaving West Ham, Moore played for Fulham and later moved to the United States, continuing his career with teams including the San Antonio Thunder and the Seattle Sounders. Following his retirement from professional football, he worked as a sports journalist and broadcaster, sharing his insights into the game he loved.

Bobby Moore’s legacy extends beyond his personal achievements; he is celebrated for uniting his teammates and inspiring a nation. His example shows that footballing success is built not just on talent, but on trust, communication, and collective effort.

Bobby Moore by Matt Dickinson
ISBN: 9780224091732

Publication Date: 2015-09-01

Reading for Pleasure: Sports biographies

Sport Biographies

Stronger together

Bobby Moore