John Barrett Knihy

Cover the history of the Wimbledon Championships from their start in 1877 to the present day.

This beautifully-presented and fully revised and updated edition of popular former BBC commentator John Barrett's seminal history of The Championships tells the story of how a small croquet club in rural Surrey has grown to become the world's most famous tennis club and home to one of the great international sporting events.

Henrietta has big dreams for a little chicken: learning to sing, to swim, to fly, and, most important of all, to lay golden eggs. Even when her three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three fellow inmates in the old henhouse laugh at her ambitions, Henrietta holds fast, practicing day and night. And while she is honing her talents, she is also getting ready to move on to the bigger, brighter world she can see through the tiny hole in the henhouse wall.

The preservation of significant literary works is crucial for future generations, and this book has been meticulously retyped, redesigned, and reformatted to enhance readability. It aims to ensure that the content remains accessible and clear, avoiding the pitfalls of scanned versions. This modern edition serves to maintain the importance of the original work throughout history, making it a valuable resource for both current readers and those to come.

Beyond the Hedge of Thorns recounts the small moments in the everyday life of a boy growing up in a Pennsylvania mining town during the vanished era when the butcher, grocer, and milkman delivered right to the house, television had not yet arrived, and kids played softball on vacant lots, cruised the woods, and got into more or less innocent trouble. Set against the backgrounds of the Second World War, illnesses not yet banished, and anthracite coal mining, with its machinery, scarred landscapes, profoundly influencing the town's inhabitants, the boyhood described here was nevertheless a happy one, full of modest adventures in unlikely places. John S. Barrett brings it back to life in these pages with a unique voice and a grand gift for remembering the details, colors, and emotions of those times.

Packed with stunning and evocative images taken from the All England Club's own archives and items of memorabilia plucked from the Wimbledon Museum this lavish book also includes quotes and stories from some of tennis's greatest names. This new edition features some wonderful behind the scenes images from 2009 including the unveiling of Centre Court's revolutionary new retractable roof and Roger Federer's epic men's singles triumph. Winner of Best Illustrated Book at the British Sports Book Awards 2010