Great Books For Dad This Father’s Day

Simply The Best

David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd is one of cricket’s great characters – hilarious, informative and insightful, and filled with boundless enthusiasm for the game. Now, in Cricket Characters, he tells the stories of the most important, influential, talented and entertaining characters he has come across in sixty years in the game.  

Bumble looks back at the cricketers who have had the greatest impact on him throughout his career. From the gnarly veterans he first played against as a teenager in the Lancashire League, through the old pros he met on the county circuit while at Lancashire on to a revealing insight into life alongside Mike Atherton, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain and Shane Warne in the commentary box, this book reveals Bumble at his best: telling great stories about his favourite people. 

True Genius: George Best

True Genius is the definitive family-backed account of his remarkable career published to coincide with what would have been his 75th birthday. The games, the goals, the glory. This is the untold story.

Written by celebrated Manchester United author Wayne Barton, this biography goes into unparalleled depth to tell the complete story for the first time of how the lad from Cregagh, Northern Ireland, became the game’s first superstar. Barton has trawled the archives and spoken to a host of former team-mates, managers, friends and close family to tell his story. 

The Spitfire Kids – Alasdair Cross

The Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.

Based on the hit BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People’s Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her.

100 Great Walks with Kids

100 wonderful walks right across Britain suitable for families with children from 0 upwards, including carrier- and buggy-friendly routes and themes such as mini mountains, walks with paddles, beaches, woodland, wildlife, circumnavigations of lakes, and walks from child-friendly cafes. informative introduction with advice on making walks with kids successful and enjoyable (best clothing and equipment, food and drink, the countryside code, and a light-hearted troubleshooting guide for commonly-encountered problems)

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide – Anthony Bourdain

A celebration of the life and legacy of one of the most important food writers of all time – the inimitable Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter – and many places beyond.

In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favourite places – in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid. 

National Trust School of Gardening

Elevate your own green space and become a more confident and creative gardener with lessons from experienced National Trust gardeners in this comprehensive horticultural guide. 

National Trust garden staff receive countless questions from visitors about plants growing in the gardens and techniques that can be tried at home. 

Tom Kerridge’s Outdoor Cooking

Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge shares his huge passion for barbecue and outdoor cooking in this timely new book. He takes simple ideas like burgers and grills, and creates the ultimate version with over 80 recipes that are stunningly delicious. Chapters include hearty favourites like pork and chorizo burger, veggie mains like charred cauliflower salad, and shareable snacks like aubergine dips and flatbreads. 

The Nothing Man – Catherine Ryan Howard

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.
Now I am the woman who is going to catch him…

You’ve just read the opening pages of The Nothing Man, the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was – is – the Nothing Man. The more Jim reads, the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first…

The Last House on Needless Street – Catriona Ward

This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. Revenge. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet some of them are lies.

You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. But you’re wrong. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, something lies buried. But it’s not what you think…