Telegraph Books – serie

A man, a bike and the open road. What could be simpler? Certainly not the Tour de France, the annual travelling circus which for more than a century has been the ultimate test of sporting endurance.There’ s been pain. There’ s been joy. There’ s been death. There’ s been derring-do of mythic proportions. There’ s been cheating. There’ ve been drugs. There’ ve always been drugs. And there’ s always been the Daily Telegraph.On the peaks of Mont Ventoux, Alpe D’ Huez and Col du Galibier, in amongst the picnicking, partying crowds, whizzing through London in 2007’ s wondrous opening stage, dropping in and out of the peloton, the Telegraph has been there for every turn of the wheel. The book features eyewitness accounts of cycling greats Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong, along with details of the contest’ s darker side – including the 1967 death of Tom Simpson and the stain of doping. Boasting contemporary, firsthand reports from leading cycling correspondents including J.B Wadley, David Saunders and Phil Liggett, this book captures the full drama of the tour. Chris Boardman and David Millar provide views from the saddle; James Cracknell swaps his boat for a bike on a pre-race reconnaissance mission; Paul Hayward catalogues the 1998 ‘ Tour of Shame’ ; while Brendan Gallagher eulogises the colossi who bestrode the race, and searches for their modern-day successors. Together, they chronicle the greatest show on two wheels. Martin Smith was formerly assistant sports editor and sports writer at the Daily Telegraph, where he worked for more than twenty years. An enthusiastic cyclist in his youth, he graduated to the less arduous four wheels as soon as he was able.

For the record-breaking third time London will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2012. From the inception of Baron Pierre de Courbetin’ s crusade to revive the Games of the ancient Greeks, in the 1890s, through the triumphs and disasters of twenty-nine Olympiads, The Daily Telegraph has been there to provide eye-witness accounts of the greatest sporting moments in history with characteristic authority.This comprehensive and colourful review of the summer Olympics takes you back to 1908, the first time London held the Games, with Dorando Pietri’ s infamous disqualification in the marathon. Then to Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zatopek lifeting the War-scarred capital in the Austerity Games of 1948. With more recent record-breaking moments from the Olympics of Sydney, Athens and Beijing, this is the perfect scene-setter for the Games’ return to London.From Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett to Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, Kelly Holmes, Steve Redgrave, Ian Thorpe and Daley Thompson, the tears and the glory of all the heroes and villains from 116 years of Olympic history are collected here in this wonderful anthology of the greatest show on earth.

John Betjeman began writing for the Telegraph in 1951 and continued to do so for a quarter of a century. During that time Britain underwent profound social and cultural changes. In architecture, grand Victorian edifices were pulled down to make way for gleaming brutalist monuments to the Future. In literature, a new generation of angry young men (and women) challenged convention head on. In music, pomp and circumstance gave way to the electric guitar. And in fashion, hemlines crept up.Amongst much of the population, however, such rapid change met with disquiet: a nagging sense that the New had displaced much that was wonderful in the Old. By turns eccentric, wistful and polemical, Betjeman’ s writing for the Telegraph gave voice to this unease. From contemporary reviews – often refreshingly caustic – of novelists such as Ian Fleming, Nancy Mitford and J.D. Salinger, through prescient warnings about the threat posed to the English skyline by office blocks,  motorways and concrete lamp-standards, to elegiac paeans to  Norman churches  and, of course, the gothic majesty of St Pancras station, Lovely Bits of Old England collects the very best of Betjeman’ s contributions to the Telegraph for the first time. Taken together they offer a eulogy for what was lost and an impassioned defence of the past in the face of progress’ s  relentless onward march.

An exploration of everything the countryside means to us, from a hundred years of the Telegraph’ s archive.The Telegraph is, as its former editor Max Hastings identified, more than any other national broadsheet the newspaper of the countryside, which over the years has been written about in its pages by such distinguished writers as J.H.B. Peel, John Betjeman and W.F. Deedes, alongside eminent modern naturalists like Richard Mabey and even unlikely proponents of the rural life like Boris Johnson.This anthology is no bland celebration of bucolic idyll, but rather an exploration of everything that the countryside represents to the British. For some it means the reintroduction of long-lost wildlife such as the red kite, or ancient crafts like thatching. For others it means jouncing along a green lane in a four-wheel-drive Range Rover. To the Prince of Wales, his new town of Poundbury is the countryside while subjects as diverse as crop circles, second homes, Mad Cow Disease and polytunnels are all flashpoints in the modern debate about what, and who, the countryside is for. Hugely varied, by turns funny and provocative, this is an essential exploration of a central aspect of our national identity.

The Telegraph’ s obituaries pages are renowned for their quality of writing and capacity to distil the essence of a life from its most extraordinary moments. A unique mix of heroism, ingenuity, infamy and the bizarre, Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer collects the very best of those obituaries to present an endlessly absorbing  compendium of human endeavour.    Organised day by day around the calendar year, with each life presented on the date it ended, the book  features hundreds of remarkable stories. World statesmen jostle with glamorous celluloid stars, pioneering boffins sit alongside chart-topping rock ’ n’ rollers, while artists and their muses mingle with record-breaking sportsmen, Victoria Cross winners, spies, showgirls and captains of industry – as well as the titans of rather more esoteric fields.Here, for instance, can be found Britain’ s greatest goat breeder, a hangman who campaigned to abolish the death penalty, a priest to Soho’ s pimps, a cross-dressing mountaineer and a minister who preached a gospel of avarice - donations in notes only, please, as ‘ change makes me nervous’ .  A treasure trove of human virtue, vice and trivia, Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer is the perfect gift for the armchair psychologist in all of us.

Whenever an august figure departs the world of cricket, The Daily Telegraph records a decorous tribute. There will certainly be an obituary – in days of yore penned by the doyen of cricket writers, E.W. Swanton, in recent times unafraid to be a lot more whimsical, waspish, and even extremely funny. There will often be an appreciation by one of the paper’ s stable of cricket correspondents, such as Derek Pringle, Michael Henderson or Scyld Berry, most likely drawing on their memories of having played against the subject or watched his deeds. And sometimes a hero’ s demise will prompt a heartfelt tribute from someone whose only qualification as an elegist is their own eloquence, as John Major displays on Denis Compton and Michael Parkinson on Keith Miller. And those cricket lives deemed worthy of memorialising need not be illustrious Test careers, though all the great names from Bradman to Bedser, Cowdrey to D’ Oliviera, are here. They can also be quixotic county mavericks like ‘ Bomber’ Wells, self-effacing professionals like Tom Cartwright and Derek Shackleton, or charismatic one-offs like Colin Milburn or the Nawab of Pataudi. They may not even be cricketers, but rather much-loved commentators and broadcasters like Brian Johnston and Christopher Martin-Jenkins, players-turned-umpires like David Shepherd and Bill Alley, or, like the Bishop of Liverpool who previously opened for Sussex and England, have made their name equally elsewhere. Their achievements are often hymned by their peers – Mark Nicholas on his Hampshire team-mate Malcolm Marshall, Tony Lewis on John Arlott, Colin Croft on Alf Valentine, and Simon Hughes on facing the fearsome Sylvester Clarke.Here, then, are more than eighty greats of the game – Australians and South Africans alongside Somerset yeomen and Yorkshire’ s finest. For any cricket lover, this little book is an endlessly browsable testament to the sheer richness and variety of the cricketing life.

The Telegraph has long enjoyed the closest association with gardeners. Indeed, as the newspaper of choice for the counties and the shires, it revels in the glory and variety of Britain’ s horticultural heritage, whether celebrating the most renowned gardens, like Great Dixter, or extolling the tart virtues of rhubarb.For gardening spans a vast spectrum. Variously hobby, art form, industry and, on occasion, cause of social unrest, it encompasses the annual spectacle of the Chelsea Flower Show, Vita Sackville-West’ s legendary White Garden at Sissinghurst, and the pursuit of prize-winning pumpkins. And while the Telegraph’ s weekend supplements might publish advice on growing asparagus or figs, the letters pages bristle with feuds and controversies at the RHS.  Whatever form it takes, few things could be more central to the world of the Telegraph reader than the garden. Which is why the paper has always attracted the best writers on the subject: from the experts of today, such as Stephen Lacey, Mary Keen, Sarah Raven and Bunny Guinness, through great sages of yesteryear, like Fred Whitsey, Denis Wood and Rosemary Verey, to the more esoteric musings of Germaine Greer, Roy Strong and W. F. Deedes. All are collected here in this compendious and endlessly fascinating anthology, compiled by eminent green-fingered scribe Tim Richardson.As varied and colourful as a traditional herbaceous border at the height of summer, Of Rhubarb and Roses  is the perfect book for an afternoon’ s reading in a deckchair, as the shadows lengthen across that newly mown lawn.

Whether it’ s leaves on the line or the wrong kind of snow, whether the extortionately priced, curled-up sandwich on sale in the buffet car, or the militancy of the rail unions that seem to be endlessly on strike over nothing, everyone in Britain has an opinion about our railways. After the weather, they are probably the country’ s most reliable talking point.With Telegraph readers being the trenchant, choleric and waggish letter-writers that they are, our railways have always figured high on the list of subjects requiring a missive to the Editor. Now, in this fascinating and hilarious selection, Gavin Fuller has put together the best letters on trains to the paper over the years. Here is the end of Steam and the start of Eurostar; the punctuality of Swiss trains and the signal failures of ours; the laments for the branch lines lost under the Beeching cuts, and also for the much-missed peace and quiet of a railway carriage, replaced by the menace of personal stereos and fellow passengers booming, ‘ I’ m On The Train!’ into their mobile phones.

This summer's Ashes was another unforgettable instalment in the oldest and greatest rivalry in international sport. From the thrilling denouement at Trent Bridge, when Australia came within 19 runs of an incredible victory, to the stunning spell of hostile fast bowling from Stuart Broad in Durham and England's frantic run-chase in the gloom at the Oval in pursuit of an historic 4-0 series victory, the series was never less than engrossing.And - as always in an Ashes summer - there was as much intrigue off the field. David Warner made himself the English public's favourite pantomime villain by taking a swing at Joe Root before a ball was bowled, controversy raged over the standards of umpiring and the use of the Decision Review System while Darren Lehmann stoked the fires ahead of the return series Down Under with his infamous radio rant at Broad.The Daily and Sunday Telegraph's unbeatable team of cricket writers were present through the 2013 series to deliver the definitive account of events. Derek Pringle, Paul Hayward, Scyld Berry, Simon Hughes, Jim White, Steve James and Nick Hoult dissected events with forensic detail, and former captains Michael Vaughan and Geoffrey Boycott, together with Australian spinning legend Shane Warne, set the agenda with their hard-hitting columns.So, as you tick off the days to the first Test in Brisbane, relive the splendour of Ian Bell's three centuries, Ashton Agar's record-breaking debut, Root's stunning innings at Lord's and the spectacular bowling of Graeme Swann and James Anderson, as chronicled in the pages of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

A hilarious tour of the state of our mother tongue, from the people who brought you Am I Alone In Thinking . . . ?, Sign Language is a collection of the most inappropriate, confusing, poorly translated and mind-bogglingly bizarre signs from around the world. Few things amuse and appall Telegraph readers as much as the abuse, misuse, mistranslation and outright mangling of the English language, as can be seen in the newspaper's weekly feature which invites members of the public to send in photographs of menus, health and safety warnings, road signs, adverts, headlines and personals columns – anything in which the language has gone egregiously, hilariously and, usually, unintentionally wrong.Entitled Sign Language, the published selection of the very best images has become one of the newspaper’s most popular features, attracting over 300,000 online visitors every week and attracting thousands of submissions from around the world. Now, we present the very best of Sign Language – both seen and unseen – and offer a timely warning about the imperiled state of modern English.

An anthology of letters from writers to the Telegraph covering the lead up to and the duration of the entire First World War. For the millions at home watching the horrors of the First World War unfold, there were few means by which they could express their anxiety, show their pride for the Tommies on the front, or vent their frustration at the way the war was being fought. So, many did what the British do best – they wrote letters and, in so doing, tried to understand the events over which they had no control. And many of these were addressed to the Editor of the Letters pages at the Daily Telegraph, through whom they came to have a voice.Collected together for the first time, from the lead up to war through to the declaration of peace, in 1918, are the voices of a slice of Britain whose stories tell of a war viewed from relative safety, but scarred by tragedy, guilt and grief. Together these letters reveal a new portrait of a nation at war – one penned by readers of the Daily Telegraph themselves. As they dealt with the anguish and fear for loved ones while ‘ doing their bit’ far from the front line, they came together in the Letters Pages and tried to come to terms with a war that would alter the courses of their lives forever.

How do you achieve sporting immortality?  How do you develop a winning mentality?What seprates the best from the rest?While sporting greatness is for the few, there is much that the rest of us can learn from them. From the era-defining brilliance of Muhammad Ali to the tactical genius of Sir Alex Ferguson, gathered together here for the first time are the rare insights into what made some of the best sports men and women from the past century.Drawn from the Telegraph archives, this collection of interviews, contemporary accounts and first-person articles covering everyone from Michael Phelps to Dame Ellen MacArthur, Roger Federer to Michael Schumacher, Sir Steve Redgrave to Nicole Cooke, give a rare glimpse of how these individuals conquered the world.Through the snow, mud, ice and sun of the sporting calendar, TheTelegraph Book of Champions features one hundred champions from thirty-one sports. Side by side, in this unique collection, they line up as a reminder of what it takes to be the best, why success at the very top is only for the few, and what the rest of us mere mortals can learn from them.

SIR – Our dog Ben has savaged all electioneering material pushed through our letterbox, with the exception of any communication from the Conservative Party. My son even tried reposting the same flyer, but still no mauling from Ben. Are we to conclude that our dog swings to the right?  SIR – As a regular visitor to the UK, I have been fascinated by the spate of letters regarding the television viewing of assorted pets. They have reinforced my view that the British are quite, quite mad.Long may it be so.  SIR – Following the recent results of the English cricket team in the World Cup, may I suggest a duck as the national bird for England?   The venerable letterbox of TheDaily Telegraph is host to a menagerie of musings from a wealth of animal owners and observers on a topic very close to their hearts. From the farmstead to the front room, big and small, feathered and furry can be found amidst the pages of this collection including correspondence from dogs, notes about peacocks, admonitions on horse owners and scapegoats for cats. With the great and the good of the furry and feathered featured, this is the Telegraph letter-writer's pet subject.Whether you live with a labradoodle, spend your weekends twitching or simply watching the tortoises go by, here is the best assortment of animals as gathered by the readers of TheTelegraph.