The writer and editor recommends books on the sporting life. His new book, "The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger", is about his great-grandfather, who invented the penalty kick.
The Iliad
Is it too fanciful to suggest that Homer is where the penalty kick and the penalty shoot-out begins? The moment we find Achilles sulking in his changing-room over an intolerable slight to his heroic prowess (actually, it's all about a girl), we are in classic single combat territory, replete with the kind of life-and-death psychology that Harry Kane and David Beckham would understand.
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Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby, 1992
A landmark memoir in which football is more than just a thrilling sporting narrative. A young man finds clues to the meaning of life through his devotion to Arsenal: the book that unlocked for me what it means to be a fan.
The Ball is Round
David Goldblatt, 2006
There are many shelves of books about football, but this is the essential guide. An unvarnished history of the game since the industrial revolution, it is well-sourced, dispassionate, comprehensive and impressively lucid.
The Goalkeeper's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Peter Handke, 1970
Once the penalty kick was recognised as an existential symbol in Handke's avant- garde crime story, it acquired a resonance that still lingers. From around 1970, penalties became a topic of profound psychological importance, inspiring the emergence of specialist consultants versed in the mysteries of the shoot-out. An Irish invention now became a global televised phenomenon.
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
Malcolm Gladwell, 2009
Gladwell (famed for the "tipping point") is a master exponent of sports psychology and sudden death on the football field or tennis court. This collection includes his counterintuitively brilliant essay "The Art of Failure" – read him on "choking" and "panicking" at the penalty spot with your heart in your mouth.
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5 cinematic cartoons about Bezos betting big on 'Melania'Cartoons Artists take on a girlboss, a fetching newspaper, and more
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The fall of the generals: China’s military purgeIn the Spotlight Xi Jinping’s extraordinary removal of senior general proves that no-one is safe from anti-corruption drive that has investigated millions
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Why the Gorton and Denton by-election is a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’Talking Point Reform and the Greens have the Labour seat in their sights, but the constituency’s complex demographics make messaging tricky
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
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American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
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Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
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Caribbean resorts that call for serious rest and relaxationThe Week Recommends Serenity is a flight away
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February’s books feature new Toni Morrison, a sapphic love tale and a criticism of Mexican historyThe Week Recommends This month’s new releases include ‘Autobiography of Cotton’ by Cristina Rivera Garza, ‘Language as Liberation’ by Toni Morrison and ‘Heap Earth Upon It’ by Chloe Michelle Howarth
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Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
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Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
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Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
