Rob Smyth – författare

The story of the coolest international football team in history - the 1980s Danish national team - told for the first time in English.The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back living. They played like angels and lived like you and I, and they were everyone’s second team in the mid-1980s. The story of Danish Dynamite, as the team became known, is the story of a team of rock stars in a polyester Hummel kit.Hailing from a country with no real football history to speak of and a population of five million, this humble and likeable team was unique. Everymen off the field and superheroes on it, they were totally of their time, and their approach to the game was in complete contrast to the gaudy excess and charmless arrogance of today’s football stars. That they ultimately imploded in spectacular style, with a shocking 5-1 defeat to Spain in the 1986 World Cup in a game that almost everyone expected them to win, only adds to their legend.For the first time in English, Danish Dynamite tells the story of perhaps the coolest team in football history, a team that had it all and blew it in spectacular style after a live-fast-die-young World Cup campaign. Featuring interviews with the players themselves, including Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjær and Jesper Olsen, as well as with those who played or managed against them, this is a joyous celebration of one of the most life-affirming teams the world has ever seen.

Classic World Cup clashes brought to life and re-evaluated by two of the writers of the popular Guardian minute-by-minute football blog. Watching each match in real time and reacting to the twists and turns of the action, Murray and Smyth bring you the real stories of the matches as they happened, not the highlights package or rose-tinted version. From the crowd swarming over the pitch moments before the Brazil-Uruguay classic of 1950 kicked off, to the dubious refereeing decisions that decided England's single triumph at Wembley, this is the history of the World Cup as you've never seen it before. As well as 30 classic moments from other matches, the games given a full report include:1950Uruguay v Brazil1962Chile v Italy1966England v ArgentinaEngland v West Germany1970England v West GermanyItaly v West GermanyBrazil v Italy1974West Germany v Holland1978Scotland v Holland1982Brazil v ItalyWest Germany v France1986England v Argentina France v Brazil1990England vs CameroonEngland v West Germany1994Romania v Argentina1998Argentina v England2006Italy v Germany2010Spain v Holland

* SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS *Robin Smith was one of England's most popular cricketers of the 1990s. The Judge, as he was known to all, took on some of the most dangerous fast bowlers of all time with a skill and fearlessness that ensured hero status. His savage square cut drew roars of approval from fans all around the world, especially those of his beloved England and Hampshire. But when he was prematurely dumped from the England set-up at the age of 32, he had to face his toughest opponent of all - himself. Smith suffered a debilitating loss of identity, especially when he retired from professional cricket in 2003, and struggled to deal with the contradictions in his personality. Was he the Judge, the fearless warrior, or Robin Smith, the frantic worrier? Without a support structure to transition from cricket to the outside world, Smith suffered from mental health, alcohol, marital and financial problems until he hit rock bottom and planned to take his own life. In The Judge - More than Just a Game, he revisits his experience of extreme darkness and challenges received wisdom about masculinity and mental health. He also shares the many highs and lows of his eventful international and county career, including his exhilarating battles with the West Indies and his struggles against mystery spin. And he reflects fondly on a time when cricketers worked hard and partied even harder; a time almost unrecognisable to the modern day.

From the celebrated mock obituary following England's first-ever defeat by Australia on home soil in 1882, to the on-pitch insults (or 'sledges') of today, Ashes cricket has spawned nearly as many memorable quotes as it has balls bowled and runs scored. GENTLEMEN AND SLEDGERS charts the ebb and flow of Anglo-Australian cricketing fortunes across 131 years and 314 matches by telling the stories behind 100 memorable Ashes quotations. From fast bowler Jeff Thomson's classic 'I enjoy hitting a batsman more than getting him out. I like to see blood on the pitch' in 1975, to Michael Clark's notorious advice to Jimmy Anderson to 'get ready for a f****** broken arm' in 2013, the quotations embrace quips, insults, examples of the dark art of sledging – and even the occasional considered cricketing judgement. Evoking memorable moments and matches as well as highs and lows in the careers of Australia and England's greatest players, GENTLEMEN AND SLEDGERS is an informal, freewheeling, discursive and entertainingly opinionated history of the Ashes.