Hendo's Sporting Heroes

Best of British

Britain gave sport to the world. Now it's time to take it back...

You can dip in and out without feeling as though you're doing his magnum opus an injustice.

Part of the fun is disagreeing with the selections...but Hendo's arguments are as persuasive as his prose is entertaining.

A brilliant and frequently barmy selection of the nation's sporting heroes.

Jon Henderson has been a sports journalist for forty years. A former Reuters correspondent, he has reported on five Olympics, countless England cricket tours and two football World Cups, and he has covered every Wimbledon since 1969. He is now tennis correspondent and deputy sports editor of the Observer.

Best of British is a celebration of the nation's greatest 100 sporting heroes, from Henry VIII to Red Rum, Roy of the Rovers to Torvill and Dean. Jon Henderson has combed through the annals of our glorious and not so glorious past to bring us the geniuses and the eccentrics, the national treasures and the villains who together have shaped our present. 
 
Trueman and W. G., Best and Edwards, racing drivers, jockeys, rowers - just what does it take to make a sporting superhero? Hendo's 100 reveals all. Opinionated and provocative, his witty character studies - accompanied by stylish illustrations - capture the essence of his subjects' greatness, re-evaluating the famous and rescuing the forgotten. But when there's a cast of thousands to choose from, and hundreds of years of history to explore, who will make the cut for the most heroic of the heroic? Find out, in Best of British.

The Life of Fred Perry

The Last Champion

The William Hill longlisted biography of Britain's greatest tennis player.

A compelling tome, one that traces an extraordinary life

A compelling portrait of a great sportsman

The first clear-eyed account of an extraordinary life. Book of the Week

A great story, far meatier than the average sporting biography. Henderson has researched it well, tells it nicely and weighs up conflicting evidence wisely

The Last Champion ... is worth reading, not just for the portrait of the unstoppable Fred but for the easy-flowing manner in which Jon Henderson, the doyen of tennis correspondents, evokes the glamour of the sporting 1930s

Jon Henderson has covered every Wimbledon since 1969. He was tennis correspondent and chief subeditor of the Observer from 1991 - 2009.

Discover the ultimate read for any tennis fan. 
 
 'The first clear-eyed account of an extraordinary life' Independent on Sunday 
 
Wimbledon champion three times in the 1930s, Fred Perry is the finest tennis player that Britain has ever produced. Less well known is that Perry came from an unprivileged background and found himself - despite his supreme talent - an outsider in a sport that looked down on the advancement of the under-classes. 
 
Not afraid to ruffle a few establishment feathers, Perry discarded his hallowed amateur status in 1936 and turned professional. He compounded this perceived sin by taking out US citizenship when the Second World War broke out. He embraced his new country wholeheartedly. From Hollywood to Florida, Perry led a scandalous private life, marrying four times and charming himself into the beds of numerous Hollywood starlets and beautiful models along the way. 
 
The Last Champion is the first biography of Fred Perry. Through extensive research and revealing interviews, Jon Henderson, tennis correspondent of the Observer, brilliantly tells the remarkable story of this remarkable man. 
 
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

Jon Henderson

Portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fog-bound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who would travel to away matches by train and walk to the ground from the station

The book portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fogbound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who'd travel to away matches by train then walk to the ground from the station

A marvellous, well-written biography that doesn’t shirk from exploring controversial episodes in Sir Stan’s life

Henderson succeeds in digging deeper, revealing a more complex character.  Fallouts with managers, private dramas. It’s fascinating stuff!

Conveys the ethos of football in a bygone age,  when money was secondary to sportsmanship and even world-famous players  would take the bus to the ground

Like his subject…the author has done his groundwork brilliantly

What  makes Henderson’s biography so interesting is the portrait it provides  of an entire life, the Cold War love story after Matthews had finally  hung up his boots a fascinating addendum to a career that came to a  close at his testimonial at Stoke City in 1965

Henderson seeks to dig up fresh revelations about Matthew’s private life

The Life of Stanley Matthews

‘Stanley Matthews taught us the way football should be played’ Pelé 
 
'I couldn't believe he was just a man. He was the best player in the world' Bobby Charlton 
 
'He told me that he used to play for just twenty pounds a week. Today he would be worth all the money in the Bank of England' Gianfranco Zola 
 
Stanley Matthews is one of the most famous footballers ever to play the beautiful game. Nicknamed ‘The Wizard of Dribble’ for his deadly skills, he made fools of defenders around the world. He played 84 matches for England in a career that spanned an extraordinary 33 years and such was his popularity that attendance for his club teams, Stoke City and Blackpool, more than doubled when he played. He was a global superstar decades before Beckham, Ronaldo or Messi, yet what do we really know about this legendary man? 
 
This first full and objective biography looks beyond the public face of the ‘first gentleman of soccer’ to explore a life not without controversy. This was a player who clashed with his managers, who felt undervalued in the age of the maximum wage – leading to a charge of blackmarketeering – and who was criticised for his showmanship and perceived lack of team spirit. There were private dramas too – an unhappy first marriage that produced two beloved children, and a second, to the love of his life, a Czech with a dark secret even Matthews never knew and which acclaimed biographer Jon Henderson reveals for the first time. 
 
Recreating the magic on the pitch and analyzing the key moments that made Matthews great, this is a meticulously researched story of a national hero and a fascinating insight into English football in the 20th century.

Jon Henderson

Praise for The Wizard

Portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fog-bound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who would travel to away matches by train and walk to the ground from the station

The book portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fogbound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who'd travel to away matches by train then walk to the ground from the station

A marvellous, well-written biography that doesn’t shirk from exploring controversial episodes in Sir Stan’s life

Portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fog-bound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who would travel to away matches by train and walk to the ground from the station

The book portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fogbound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who'd travel to away matches by train then walk to the ground from the station

A marvellous, well-written biography that doesn’t shirk from exploring controversial episodes in Sir Stan’s life

Portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fog-bound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who would travel to away matches by train and walk to the ground from the station

The book portrays a lost world of heavy balls, burly strikers, fogbound pitches, £20-a-week wages, and teams who'd travel to away matches by train then walk to the ground from the station

A marvellous, well-written biography that doesn’t shirk from exploring controversial episodes in Sir Stan’s life

Books by Jon Henderson

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