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David Sally is one of the world’s leading experts on social interaction and behavioural game theory with a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago Business School. His research has focussed on analysing the way that people play games, cooperate, compete, communicate and strategise. His new book The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football is Wrong, co-written with Chris Anderson, was published in May by Penguin and has been described as football’s equivalent to Moneyball. It is also a bestseller in the USA for Penguin, and has been sold in many countries around the world. (DL)
Janis Sharp is a musician and filmmaker who is most recognisable in recent years for her extraordinary 11-year campaign to save her son, Gary McKinnon. Charged with hacking into protected government websites, the US attempted to extradite Gary to the United States to face up to 70 years in prison. In October 2012 she finally won her battle when Theresa May announced the extradition would not take place and in December 2012 the Crown Prosecution Service decided that Gary would not face any charges in the UK either. Janis’ memoir, Saving Gary McKinnon, reveals the full story behind the human rights campaign that shook the country, and a mother’s fight to protect her son. (RW)
Matthew Sherry is the founder and editor of Gridiron, the UK’s only NFL magazine. Over the course of his journalistic career, Matthew has reported on wide variety of major sporting events, including the Olympic Games, the Ashes, Premier League football and, of course, the NFL. He has covered every Super Bowl since the 48th edition between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, and travels around the United States each year reporting on football and interviewing some of the game’s biggest names. He has excellent relationships with the league, all 32 teams, as well as the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NFL Films – both of whom are providing assistance on the book. Furthermore, Matthew is a regular contributor to NFL coverage in the UK on radio and has been sought for his expertise on BBC News.
Ben Sillis is a writer and editor who specialises in technology and video games. His work has featured in publications including The Guardian, TimeOut and ShortList. As the editor-in-chief of Red Bull’s gaming editorial since 2012 he has witnessed the spectacular rise of the competitive esports industry and reported on it from the front lines. In 2018 Ben was nominated for Features Writer of the Year at the Games Media Brit List Awards, celebrating the best of UK gaming journalism. He has also been nominated for his work by the eSports Industry Awards and the Games Media Awards. He is the co-writer of an upcoming book on esports due to be released by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2020, and lives in south-east London with his wife and their family.
Owen Slot is chief sports reporter on The Times. He has twice been named Sports Feature Writer of the Year and three times Sports News Reporter of the Year. He has recently collaborated with Jonny Wilkinson on his bestselling autobiography, Jonny, which has been widely praised by reviewers and was shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards. Slot has also had two books published, both romantic comedies: The Finishing Line and The Proposal. Like many sportswriters of the day, he is a converted sportsman, probably best remembered for his 1983 victory in the Dorking under-16 tennis singles. He is also an enthusiastic grower of tomatoes. Slot has just published two children’s books with Puffin: Running for Gold and Cycling for Gold. (DL)
Barbara Smit is a journalist and has written for the International Herald Tribune, The Times, Financial Times, The Economist and Time, on a variety of subjects from Business to Sport. Her first book, Pitch Invasion: Adidas and the Making of Modern Sport, was published by Penguin UK in 2006 and went on to sell numerous foreign editions, with HarperCollins winning US rights and publishing the book as Sneaker Wars in 2008. Barbara is also the author of a biography of the Heineken family published by Profile in 2014 and when she’s not writing books she is a full-time journalist and editor based in Montpellier, France. (DL/RW)
Rory Smith is the football writer for The Times which he joined in 2012. Prior to that, he wrote for The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph where he reported on the fortunes of Liverpool, Everton, Manchester City, Manchester United and the myriad of other teams in the North West who make up England’s football heartland. He worked with Rafa Benitez on Champions League Dreams which was published by Headline in 2012. Rory’s most recent project has been his work with Chris Anderson and David Sally on their bestselling The Numbers Game for Penguin. (DL)
Tom Southam is a former competitive cyclist who represented Great Britain in five World Championships as well as riding in several UCI ProTour events. Whilst riding he began writing for many publications including Rouleur, The Manzine, Procycling, The Ride Review Australia, Bicycling Australia and Boneshaker Magazine. He is currently the Press Office for Ralph Condor Sharp. He is also the co-writer of Domestique: The Real-life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro by Charly Wegelius (Ebury) which offers a unique perspective on the life of cycling’s ‘domestiques’. (DL).
John Spurling is an Assistant Headteacher, who these days only occasionally teaches History and Politics. He has contributed to several publications at home and abroad over the last five years, including FourFourTwo, When Saturday Comes, GQ Sport, Maxim, Hard Gras (Holland) and many others. In 2005, he chaired a FourFourTwo panel that included Simon Kuper, Jonathan Wilson and David Winner, to select the best fifty football books ever written, which was later published as a supplement. He is also the author of four previous books on Arsenal FC, includingHighbury:The Story Of Arsenal In N5 (Orion, 2006). He is currently writing a new book on the history of Liverpool FC. (DL)
Luis Suárez is a Uruguayan striker who plays for Liverpool FC. He is currently writing his autobiography, with the assistance of Pete Jenson and Sid Lowe, for publication by Headline Publishers this Autumn. Foreign rights are being sold by Headline’s rights’ department and deals have already been struck in several countries including Spain, Uruguay and the Netherlands. This autobiography promises to be one of the biggest sports books for 2014. (DL)
Herbie Sykes is a journalist and writer. He specializes in in the history of road bicycle racing, and writes for a number of cycling publications. His first book, The Eagle of Canavese, was published in 2008. A biography of Franco Balmamion, it focussed on his winning the 1962 Giro d’Italia. He followed up with Maglia Rosa: Triumph and Tragedy at the Giro d’Italia, an illustrated history of the Giro d’Italia. His newest book, Coppi, was published by Bloomsbury Sport at the end of 2012. A biography of iconic cyclist Fausto Coppi, it was a great success and was shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards 2013. Herbie is currently writing a biography of Dieter Wiedemann for Aurum Press, due for publication this year. (DL).
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Caroline Taggart is one of our most prolific and popular authors. Her latest book, New Words for Old (Michael O’Mara) sees her continue to explore the way in which our language evolves and is part of her series for this publisher that includes bestsellers such as My Grammar and I (or Should that be Me?), I Used to Know That, An Apple a Day and A Classical Education. When she is not unpicking the English language, she can be found delving into the history of the British Isles which as resulted in three books – two on the history of place names (The Book of English Place Names and The Book of London Place Names) – and one on the subject of cake (A Slice of Britain). In addition, she is behind the bestselling “Her Ladyship Series” for The National Trust, the most recent of which, A Guide to Royal Etiquette was published in 2014. Others in the series include Her Ladyship’s Guide to the Queen’s English and Running One’s Home. Caroline is presently completing a new title for Pavilion on the subject of The Art of Conversation. www.carolinetaggart.co.uk (RW)
Naomi Thompson is an expert in all things vintage and is the founder of Vintage Secret. She is regularly called on by broadcasters for her knowledge of vintage style, and writes for Homes & Antiques. Her first book, Style Me Vintage: Clothes, has been a bestseller for Anova Books. More recently, Naomi has teamed up with the fashion historian Liz Tregenza on a new book for Pavilion called Style Me Vintage: Accessories for publication this Autumn. www.vintagesecret.com (RW)
Ann Treneman is the theatre critic for The Times where she also has an occasional column. She has written a number of books – the most recent of which is a lively and very funny collection of her sketches published by Robson Press entitled We’re All in This Together. Her previous book is the bestselling Finding the Plot (Robson Press) – an exploration of 100 graves you should visit before you die, which will be reissued in paperback in 2016. Ann is a regular contributor to Times Plus events and frequently appears at literary festivals around the UK. (RW) www.anntreneman.com
Liz Tregenza is a fashion historian, vintage dealer, obsessive clothes hoarder and an expert on vintage textiles and accessories. She advises numerous galleries and collections and her first book, Style Me Vintage: Accessories will be published this September by Pavilion (RW) @liztregenza.
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Jeremy Whittle is an award-winning author and journalist, perhaps best-known for his coverage of the Tour de France and world cycling in The Times, Sunday Herald and other newspapers and magazines. He is currently the cycling correspondent for The Guardian and the author of several highly acclaimed cycling books including Ventoux (Simon & Schuster, June 2017), an inspiring memoir of the Giant of Provence and Bad Blood: The Secret Life of the Tour de France. He collaborated with David Millar on his memoir Racing Through the Dark (Orion, 2011), which was shortlisted for both the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the British Sports Book Awards. Whittle is now working with Jonathan Vaughters on his memoir which will be published by Quercus in May 2019. He lives in Sussex with his family. @jeremycwhittle (DL)
Mark Woods is a script-writer and has worked with some of the UK’s best known TV personalities. Now in charge of media relations for Comic Relief, he regularly accompanies celebrities on gruelling treks to raise money for the charity and also finds time to write. His first book, Pregnancy for Men: The Full Nine Months, was published by Crimson in 2010 and the follow up, Babies and Toddlers for Men, was published in April 2012. Most recently, Crimson published two pocket book editions of these titles: Pregnancy for Men 101 Tips and Babies and Toddlers for Men 101 Tips. Mark is currently writing a new book on the subject of parenting, and he is the father of Stanley and Louis and lives with his wife in a house in the country. (RW)
Simon Wilde has been the cricket correspondent of the Sunday Times since 1998 and, before that, was a general sports writer for The Times for 12 years. He was highly commended for his work in the British Sports Journalism awards, 2003. He is the author of six books and is one of only two authors to have been shortlisted for the William Hill sports book of the year on three occasions—for Ranjitsinhji: A Genius Rich and Strange (1990), Letting Rip: A History of Fast Bowling (1994) and Shane Warne: Portrait of a Flawed Genius (2007). He also wrote the autobiography of Graham Thorpe in 2005. His most recent book, a biography of Ian Botham (Simon and Schuster, April 2014), has been shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards. (DL)
Jonathan Wilson, Editor of the critically acclaimed football quarterly “The Blizzard”, is one of the UK’s most successful writers of narrative sportsbooks. His most recent book, The Outsider, was published in 2012 by Orion to widespread praise. Previous books include a biography of Brian Clough, Nobody Ever Says Thank You (Orion, 2011). His bestselling history of the evolution of football tactics, Inverting the Pyramid, was named Football Book of the Year by the National Sporting Club in 2008, shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and has sold around the world. The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches was published in March 2009 and his investigation into eastern European football, Behind the Curtain, was shortlisted for Football Book of the Year in 2006. A former football correspondent of the Financial Times, he now writes regularly for The Guardian, Independent, FourFourTwo and Champions in the UK, World Soccer King in Japan and The National in Abu Dhabi. He lives in London. (DL)
Richard Wilson is a Sports Writer based in Glasgow. He spent 10 years at The Sunday Times Scotland as Deputy Sports Editor then Sports Writer, winning the Jim Rodger Memorial Award for Best Young Sports Writer in 2002 and being named Sports Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards in 2003. He is now freelance, working regularly for the Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Herald. His first book, Inside the Divide: One City, Two Teams… The Old Firm, is published by Canongate. (DL)