Böcker av Robert McCrum

A rousing history of the penalty kick and its introduction in English football by a famed British writer & editor.Football, in the 1880s, was a rough and dangerous game. To address the abhorrent state of the sport, William McCrum, an amateur Irish goalkeeper and the author's great-grandfather, proposed the penalty kick, a new and drastic sanction introduced to the game in 1891. For over a hundred years, this extraordinary phenomenon has not only regulated the conduct of football (also known as soccer) but has also inspired game theories and infiltrated classics of contemporary literature.An enthralling portrait of a lost age, The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger is a family history, a social history, and a history of the world's most popular sport. It considers an extraordinary phenomenon as it examines the penalty kick’s psychological—even philosophical—grip on our imaginations, with its distillation of risk and chance into the penalty shoot-out, an all-or-nothing moment.

A deeply personal journey into Shakespeare's work that explores how it remains relevant and always has something to say about the times we are living in.

Part biography, part showcase for some of McConnell's most celebrated designs, this book gathers McConnell's exclusive redesign for Faber & Faber - a revolutionary new approach to book covers from the early 1980s.

An uplifting and moving investigation into how we think about death, Every Third Thought is both guide and companion, always 'wise and humane' (Andrew Marr).

Every Third Thought is about how we approach and accept death.

Everybody loves a list but this is a list of major ambition: namely, to select the best 100 novels in the English language, published from the late 17th century to the present day. This list has been built up week by week in The Observer since September 2013, and selected by writer and Observer editor Robert McCrum. With a short critique on each book, this is a real delight for literary lovers.

A fascinating study not only of the roots and growth of our own language but of its future. Bloomsbury Review"

With an introduction by Henry Marsh, author of Do No HarmMy brain, which had just let me down so badly, was perhaps never so active. The paramedics' question was a fundamental one. Who are you? Yes indeed. Who am I?Robert McCrum was forty-two when he suffered a massive stroke which left one side of his body totally paralysed, his speech drastically impaired, and his sense of himself radically altered. What followed was a prolonged period of recovery, full of heart ache and frustration, as he gradually regained sensation, movement and self-esteem and as his family pulled together in the extraordinary effort necessary to make him well again. My Year Off is a moving story of determination, courage and love that sings with wit and honesty. An invaluable insight into the reality of life after stroke, the moments of hope, the anger and despair, this is a touching classic that gives voice to millions.

The Story of English is the extraordinary tale of the origins and development of the English language. Two thousand years ago English was confined to a handful of savage tribes on the shores of north-west Europe; More widely scattered, written and spoken than any other language in history, English has become a global phenomenon.

Go anywhere in the world today and you'll see or hear English in some form. It may not be the Queen's English that you're hearing, but it is a form of universally recognised English. This title explores the history of English and ponders why, while British and American empires have waxed and waned, the English language, has taken over the world.

"An invaluable portrait, thanks to a broad, incisive and complex understanding of Wodehouse's psyche." --Janet Maslin, New York Times