Back in the 70's a young player from Aston Villa by the name of Steve Hunt was told by Ron Saunders that "There's a bloke in the canteen who wants to take you to New York i've accepted the offer" so he swopped the midlands to team up with his new team for pre season in Bermuda waiting to welcome him a squad that included the world's greatest player Pele.

Sunday Times best selling author Brian Doogan joins me as we talk about his new book "The Super Fight" that follows the rise of Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard as their lives followed a path toward the ultimate career climax "The Super Fight" which produced a result which is still hotly disputed 34 years later. Stream or download from the website or Amazon Audible, Spotify, iTunes, Sticher.

Who was the greatest team never to win a world cup, Netherlands team of 74 or 78 perhaps, for some yes for others is it without question the Brazil team of 1982. In this edition of the podcast Stuart Horsfield joins me to talk about his latest book "Brazil 1982 The Glorious Failure" 

This month football with a South American flavour as i talk to Daniel Williamson about his book "Blue and Gold Passion" the history of Boca Juniors

 we go back to where it all began at the turn of the 20th century and chart the rise of one of the greatest names in global club football. All the greatest players their successes and failures are bought back to life over the course of our conversation as we celebrate the history of Boca Juniors.

Welcome to the November edition of the Talking Sports Books Podcast and this month I am joined by writer, journalist and broadcaster Maurice Hamilton who has just released "Formula 1 The Official History"  we look back at all of the legends of the sport from Fangio, Moss, Clark, Lauda, Hunt, Senna to name just a few .

Welcome to the October edition of "Talking Sports Books" its all about Boxing  as one of the most charismatic coaches Paddy Fitzpatrick joins me as we talk about his new book "Hats Handwraps and Headaches"  and we hear from the man who put it all together Lee "Teach" Simpson.

Well this ended up here by mistake but there is a book interview here its not sport though its about Jimi Hendrix so i thought i'd leave it here anyway 

hope you all enjoy it  ..

This month Rolling Stones. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, the 50th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath , Stackridge, Slade ,

Buddy Guy, BB KIng and author Aiden Prewett who has just written a book called "Our Jimi" which is a collection of interviews with those who were closest to Jimi including long time girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and legendary producer Eddie Kramer .

A bumper edition as i"m joined by Steven Scragg to talk about his 2 recently completed books "A Tournament Frozen in Time" the history of the Cup Winners Cup and the soon to be released "Where the Cool Kids Hung Out " the history of the UEFA Cup . 

 In the last decade of the twentieth century, Eastern Europe was plunged into chaos following the disintegration of the Soviet and Yugoslav regimes. Politicians who had once jostled for power on the periphery of the Communist world suddenly became engaged in bloody campaigns as military frontiers sprang up across the region and new nations attempted to assert themselves.

Journalist Robert O’Connor follows those peoples for whom sovereignty and freedom have come at the highest price, telling their stories from the perspective of the ultimate laboratory of social science, the football pitch. For these communities, football has been used both as an act of resistance and as an act of rebuilding.

In Blood and Circuses, O’Connor embarks on an odyssey through the conflict zones of Eastern Europe’s rebel republics to investigate the role that football has played in the bloody inter-ethnic wars in eight of the region’s disputed territories. He discovers how in this part of the world the beautiful game has served as a platform for the expression of identity and an outlet through which to escape the hail of bullets and the iron fist of repression.

Well what a story this is, think of the names, Platini, Giresse, Tigana, Cantona, Papin, Zidane, Petit, Pires, Henry and of course many more besides 

all have played their parts over the last 4 decades with Les Bleus and Matt Spiro's book "Sacre Bleu" aims to make sense of it all,the extreme highs and the equally extreme lows.