New Releases by Hugh McIlvanney

In this autobiography of Ferguson we discover how he runs the Manchester United Football players with a rod of iron. For all of this, he is respected for his managerial style and for the way he cares for the welfare of his players.

"Hugh McIlvanney is a living legend in sports journalism. A regular winner of the fiercely contested UK Sports Writer of the Year award, he also has the unique distinction of being the only sports writer to have been voted Journalist of the Year. He is respected for his incisive commentaries and perceptive analyses of football and racing, but this collection contains the best of his writing on his first great passion, boxing. The book features in-depth analysis of the build-up, climax and aftermath of over 25 showdowns including- Muhammad Ali vs. Henry Cooper (1966) Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali (1971) George Foreman vs. Ken Norton (1974) Eusibio Pedvoza vs. Barry McGuigan (1985) Lloyd Honeyghan vs. Marlon Starling (1989) Mike Tyson vs. Frank Bruno (1989) An essential read for boxing lovers of all ages with writing so vivid that readers will feel like they have a ringside seat."

Thirty years of ringside reporting from one of the world''s most honored sportswriters A living legend on both sides of the Atlantic, British sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney is best known for his incisive ringside boxing commentaries. Employing a writing style as muscular as it is graceful, McIlvanney never fails to infect the reader with his enthusiasm and sense of awe for the sport, while at the same time revealing the deeper truths at work in all such extreme expressions of human will and physical prowess. As one critic put it, "The genius of McIlvanney is his ability to magnify and precisely delineate those elements of sport that contain fundamental truths about the human condition." First published in 1983 to great acclaim, this sport classic is reprinted with the addition of recent dispatches to span 30 years of ringside reporting. "The Hardest Game" includes McIlvanney''s commentaries on such immortal bouts as "The Rumble in the Jungle" (Foreman vs. Ali, Zaire, 1974) and "The Thriller in Manila" (Ali vs. Frazier, Philippines, 1975), and the most memorable fights in the careers of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, and others. ""Anyone who admires writing as muscular as it is graceful should buy this book."" -- The Daily Telegraph

Hugh McIlvanney is a living legend in sports journalism. A regular winner of the UK Sports Writer of the Year Award, he is the only sportswriter to have been voted Journalist of the Year and in 2005 he was named as one of the top British journalists of the modern era. This book represents the best of almost 40 years of excellence in football writing for The Scotsman, The Observerand the Sunday Times, including accounts of epic matches and profiles of managerial giants from Matt Busby and Bill Shankly to Jack Charlton, Terry Venables and Alex Ferguson. It provides essays on footballing greats such as Pele, Best and Maradona, looks at disasters from Ibrox to Hillsborough and celebrates some of the most spectacular World Cup competitions.

This is the autobiography of Alex Ferguson - he runs the Manchester United Football players with a rod of iron, but is respected for his managerial style and for the way he cares for the welfare of his players.