More Than a Game : A History of How Sport Made Britain

A Times Best Sports Book of 2023

'Fascinating' Daily Telegraph

'Lively, rich and readable' The Spectator

'Thoughtful and entertaining' Guardian

'Completely eye-opening - every page contains a gem' Marina Hyde

The remarkable stories of how sport shaped the British people.

The history of Britain is inseparable from our love affair with sport. Many of our most dramatic social shifts have played out in sporting arenas: cricket and class mobility, rugby and regional rivalry, tennis and gender equality, golf and battles for land, boxing and race-relations. The sporting theatre has even accelerated radical change via heroes including independence fighters, suffragettes and Jewish bare-knuckle boxers crashing the established order. From jousting between kingdoms to the rise of the Commonwealth Games at the end of the imperial era, More Than a Game is the fascinating account of the games, players and audiences that have defined Britain's past.