A Load Of Old Balls

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS ' Top Bins! A personal best, a lap record and a hole in one for when rain has stopped play.' ALAN DAVIES 'The trivia book of the season . . . magnificent.' SPECTATOR Did you know that Henry VIII owned the first pair of football boots? Or that David Attenborough is responsible for yellow tennis balls? A Load of Old Balls is the curious story of us and sport. It's about our mind-blowingly determined attempts to be the fastest, the strongest, the most skilful. In this endlessly entertaining tale of play and belonging, astonishing violence and jaw-dropping cheating, we learn what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed and discover why Michael Palin was disqualified from a conker tournament. Crossing millennia, continents and cultures, Harkin and Ptaszynski - the brainy researchers for BBC's QI and co-hosts of No Such Thing As A Fish -show us sport as we've never seen it before. ** Published in hardback as Everything to Play For. ** For more from the team behind QI's hit TV show, check out the QI FACTS series of books, @qikipedia, their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.com or visit qi.com.

The most improbable, fascinating and endlessly entertaining sporting facts and stories, from prehistory to the present day.[Bokinfo].

This book brings together some of the most weird and wonderful true (and not-so-true) tales. Together with an amazing selection of unbelievable facts, Bullshit will inform you about the real colour of hippo’s milk (pink), the human–banana DNA split (50:50), and why a dismembered member caused a road closure in the UK.

A Brooklyn kid hustles his way to the top of a sports marketing and memorabilia empire Brandon Steiner went from a kid who sat in the nosebleed seats at Yankee and Shea Stadiums to CEO of Steiner Sports Marketing Inc., one of the largest sports marketing and memorabilia companies in the United States, with an inventory of more than 10,000 collectibles. You Gotta Have Balls details Steiner's multiple entrepreneurial adventures, where he has both learned and taught others his fair share of "rules." Along the way, he developed some of the most innovative approaches to business—methods that many of today's companies would be wise to observe and employ themselves. You Gotta Have Balls follows Steiner on his pathway to success by demonstrating the business philosophies that allowed him to become the powerful magnate that he is. These ideals include: First to market is everything Ask "What Else?" when working with clients to enhance relationships and elicit more business Don't expand just for the sake of expanding; do it in areas and industries where your passion lies How to train employees while they're in the minor leagues to prepare them for the majors Learn to clearly identify ways to help others rather than sell to them, to align employees and partners with their strengths, and to discover a path where you're most likely to succeed.

Alison Oddey's interviews with prominent performing women span generations, cultures, perspectives, practice and the best part of the twentieth-century, telling various stories collectively. Stand-ups, 'classic' actresses, film and television personalities, experimental and 'alternative' practitioners discuss why they want to perform, what motivates them, and how their personal history has contributed to their desire to perform. Oddey's critical introductory and concluding chapters analyze both historical and cultural contexts and explore themes arising from the interviews. These include sense of identity, acting as playing (recapturing and revisiting childhood), displacement of roots, performing, motherhood and 'being', performing comedy, differences between theatre, film and television performance, attitudes towards and relationships with audiences, and working with directors. The prominent subtext of motherhood reveals a consciousness of split subjectives with and beyond performance. This new edition of the book includes three new interviews with actresses, and is useful primary resource material for undergraduate students on performance studies courses.

Welcome to the creepy, spine-tingling Immortal Tales – a series of dark, sexy fairy-tale retellings from the master of British contemporary gothic horror Sarah Rayne, perfect for fans of TERRI WINDLING, ANGELA CARTER, ANNE RICE, LAIRD BARRON and BROM. “Rayne spins eerie yarns within yarns like a latter-day Isak Dinesen or Wilkie Collins” KIRKUS REVIEWS “Equal parts Daphne du Maurier, Josephine Tey and Ruth Rendell . . . Rayne possesses superb story-telling skills” US MYSTERY GUILD “Highly enjoyable mainstream horror fare from a genre veteran” BOOKLIST “Rayne writes with panache and imagination” KIRKUS REVIEWS “Rayne is a fine writer, a sure-handed plotter and skillful character builder” BOOKLIST “Colorful characters and a mastery of slow-burning suspense” KIRKUS REVIEWS “Rayne perfects the craft of deftly chosen details, simmering suspense and chilling surprises” KIRKUS REVIEWS _______________________ A dark re-telling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale from critically-acclaimed British horror author Sarah Rayne: When the daughter of a washed-up songwriter assists her father in creating his next hit musical, she needs help from a mysterious young man who only agrees in exchange for a future debt. Fael Miller’s father, Tod, is an egocentric has-been songwriter who still feeds on the glory of his one success. Years later, he’s found a backer for a new musical, but soon panics when he discovers that he can no longer write. He turns to his daughter for help, but although Fael can think of several storylines, she is unable to construct a full stage musical. One evening, Fael’s accosted by a mysterious young man wearing a black cloak and mask. He claims he can help her, and so begins Fael’s secret alliance with the man she calls Scathach. However, there’s a sinister condition attached to his offer: he’ll only write the music if she’ll incur a future debt. Between them they weave an eerily beautiful story which goes into rehearsal. But while Fael falls deeper under Scathach’s spell, he is secretly planning a dark vengeance – a vengeance that takes Fael to a remote and menace-filled house on Ireland’s west coast, where the debt must finally be paid . . . This lush, suspenseful novel, one of three standalone fairy-tale retellings in the Immortal Tales series, is the perfect read if you enjoy gothic horror with twists and turns that will keep you up all night. READERS ARE HOOKED ON THE IMMORTAL TALES: “I am enjoying this series. If you have a taste for the gothic it's for you . . . Very atmospheric and entertaining” Suspense Fan, 5* Amazon review “Sarah Rayne's writing is always beautiful. I want to read more stories by her” 5* Amazon review “Another superb book from a superb writer” Julie B., 5* Amazon review “An amazing read. Sarah Rayne keeps the reader in suspense until the very end” Amazon Customer, 5* Amazon review “Holds you captive every step of the way . . . you won't be disappointed” B.B. Norman, 5* Amazon review “If you like to be pleasurably frightened, then this is the book for you” Greg O'Rilla, 5* Amazon review THE IMMORTAL TALES: 1. Thorn 2. Changeling 3. Wildwood

'Glorious... it's funny from the start.' – The Daily Mail 'Delightfully quirky, joyful and original... it will help you bounce exuberantly into spring' – Adele Parks 'If you loved Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, you'll love to snuggle up with this novel!' – Chat The most joyful book you will read this year! Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind. Which, in Victorian Hastings, can make things a little complicated... At 28, Violet's father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing. Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world. But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk. Can Violet solve the mystery of Lily Hamilton's vanishing before it's too late? A delightfully joyful, funny and gripping historical novel, perfect for fans of The Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.