Ed Hawkins – författare

Be inspired by Football Legend, Kylian Mbappé!Discover more about this incredible player’sjourney from his early career at AS Bondy, coachedby his father, to his success at Paris Saint-Germain FC and fulfillinghis dream of playing for France.Football Legends: Young readers will love findingout all about the lives of their favourite players in this incrediblebiography series. Packed with footie facts and match statsplus Mbappé's career highlightsAlso in the series: Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, TammyAbraham, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and LionelMessi.Amazing cover artwork illustrated by StanleyChow, whose iconic work has found worldwideacclaim

______________THE WISDEN CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR 2012''Hawkins knows both cricket and gambling, but his greatest asset in this penetrative investigation is nerve'' - Sports Books of the Year, Sunday Times''Brilliantly and vividly told … The cricket world … should know more about how the gambling end of the fixing saga actually works. And they should start with this book'' – The Cricketer''The most explosive book yet about corruption in cricket'' - Lawrence Booth, editor of Wisden Cricketers'' Almanack______________A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India''s illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket.For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India''s illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It''s a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing.Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion...

______________THE WISDEN CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR 2012‘Hawkins knows both cricket and gambling, but his greatest asset in this penetrative investigation is nerve’ - Sports Books of the Year, Sunday Times‘Brilliantly and vividly told … The cricket world … should know more about how the gambling end of the fixing saga actually works. And they should start with this book’ – The Cricketer'The most explosive book yet about corruption in cricket' - Lawrence Booth, editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack______________A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India's illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket.For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India's illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It's a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing.Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion...

A shocking exposé of football''s human-trafficking scandal.From South America and Africa, kids as young as 13 are leaving poverty-stricken families for a new life in Europe, having been sold the vision of untold riches and the trappings of professional football. This is football''s slave trade – the beautiful game turned ugly.Talent-spotted by scouts, these kids are told they could be ''the next big thing''. But the reality is very different. Having spent their family''s life savings to join a much-hyped academy, they soon discover the academies barely exist and that they have been exploited.Only a tiny percentage of the hopefuls are chosen just to be coached for the slim chance of a professional contract; the rest are abandoned. With no money to go home – let alone the confidence to face their heartbroken families – the Lost Boys find themselves stuck in the country they have been trafficked to, with crime often their only means of survival.From the author of Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy (shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and Wisden Cricketer''s Almanack 2013''s book of the year), The Lost Boys exposes for the first time the anatomy of football''s human-trafficking scandal, the extent of the abuse, and how it ruins lives and threatens the credibility of the sport.With unique access to a charity trying to rescue and repatriate the children and a special investigative unit set up to stem the problem, Ed Hawkins gets under the fingernails of one of the most serious and heart-rending issues in sport today. Lost Boys is investigative journalism at its best: shocking, moving, and hoping to make a real difference.

A shocking exposé of football's human-trafficking scandal.From South America and Africa, kids as young as 13 are leaving poverty-stricken families for a new life in Europe, having been sold the vision of untold riches and the trappings of professional football. This is football’s slave trade – the beautiful game turned ugly.Talent-spotted by scouts, these kids are told they could be ‘the next big thing’. But the reality is very different. Having spent their family's life savings to join a much-hyped academy, they soon discover the academies barely exist and that they have been exploited.Only a tiny percentage of the hopefuls are chosen just to be coached for the slim chance of a professional contract; the rest are abandoned. With no money to go home – let alone the confidence to face their heartbroken families – the Lost Boys find themselves stuck in the country they have been trafficked to, with crime often their only means of survival.From the author of Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy (shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and Wisden Cricketer's Almanack 2013's book of the year), The Lost Boys exposes for the first time the anatomy of football’s human-trafficking scandal, the extent of the abuse, and how it ruins lives and threatens the credibility of the sport.With unique access to a charity trying to rescue and repatriate the children and a special investigative unit set up to stem the problem, Ed Hawkins gets under the fingernails of one of the most serious and heart-rending issues in sport today. Lost Boys is investigative journalism at its best: shocking, moving, and hoping to make a real difference.

''An absolute gem. Funny, incredible and brilliantly reported, in Ed Hawkins the sports world has its own Jon Ronson.'' - Will StorrThe bizarre true story about the cosmic side of sports.Ever wondered if the mind tricks used by Luke Skywalker or his Star Wars brethren were real? Ed Hawkins did. A Jedi-wannabe and sports nut, he pondered: what if a coach or athlete had tried to harness such mysterious powers? They would be unstoppable. This set Ed off on an extraordinary adventure across the West Coast of America in search of a superhuman sports star. He discovers cosmic thinkers who, back in their 1960s heyday, believed that through the power of thought alone a superhuman could be created: one that could see into the future, slow down time and control minds. So successful were their tactics that they attracted the attention of the US government. Meanwhile in Russia their Soviet counterparts were employing equally bewildering brain power. Their goal? To win the Cold War. And so from the 1970s and into the Eighties the underground free-thinking movement became a fully-funded state secret in an ''inner space race'' between the US and the Soviet Union. Both sides attempting to create the perfect human killing machine. It worked. Sort of. Instead of building a super soldier, the mystics from both sides came together to preach peace and love to their political paymasters. After the thaw, the search for the superhuman sports star began again and continues to this day. In The Men on Magic Carpets Ed goes deep into a secret network of supernatural sages and is told about a mysterious American football coach who made it to the top by teaching his players The Force.But can he be found? Will he admit to what he truly believes? And how does our intrepid author cope with his own brush with the Dark Side as the shadowy military once again attempt to use the mystical powers for ill?