Everything to play for
£14.99
Hop, skip and jump into this wonderfully curious grand tour of the world of sports, brought to you by QI Elves James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski. From sport’s weirdest rules to its most unlikely heroes, each chapter of ‘Everything to Play For’ is brimming with surprising facts and intriguing stories, including the psychology of football chants, comically large cricket bats, pole-vaulting priests and professional pillow-fighting.
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?
Everything to Play For 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.
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Published in paperback as A Load of Old Balls.
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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.
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