{"title":"Books by Herbie Sykes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781787290518","title":"Juve!","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe definitive history of the iconic football club: the glory, the scandal, the stars and its enduring influence on Italian life.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJuventus utterly dominates the Italian game. Home to some of the biggest names in sport, it has won title after title, trophy after trophy. However, parallel to the success and myth, there's a murkier reality. For one hundred years the club and its billionaire owners, the Agnelli family, have been synonymous with match-fixing, doping, political chicanery and more. While La Vecchia Signora remains Italy's best-supported team, it's also its most despised.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eJuve!\u003c\/i\u003e charts the story of Italy's great sporting dynasty, chronicling the triumphs and tragedies of the Agnellis, and of the icons - Boniperti, Del Piero, Ronaldo - who have been their sporting emissaries for almost a century. The pride of Italy or its dark heart? Footballing colossus or vanity project? With this unique institution, as with so much about life in Italy, things are seldom black and white...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Superbly entertaining and incisive'  \u003ci\u003eTLS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A compelling case for a football club encapsulating the entire psyche of Italy' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305083023733,"sku":"9781787290518","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787290518_73df0b52-5c77-43c1-a009-d7a0711ec5f8.jpg?v=1786025587"},{"product_id":"9781781315361","title":"The Race Against the Stasi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCycling Book of the Year 2015 - Cross British Sports Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnbeknownst to the authorities, however, he had fallen in love with Sylvia Hermann, a girl from the other side of the wall. Socialist doctrine had it that the two of them were 'class enemies', and as a famous athlete Dieter's every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, and in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, he plotted his escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1964 he was delegated, once and once only, to West Germany. Here he was to ride a qualification race for the Tokyo Olympics, but instead committed the most treacherous of all the crimes against socialism. Dieter Wiedemann, sporting icon and Soviet pawn, defected to the other side.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhilst Wiedemann fulfilled his lifetime ambition of racing in the Tour de France, his defection caused a huge scandal. The Stasi sought to 'repatriate' him, with horrific consequences both for him and the family he left behind. Fifty years on, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dieter Wiedemann decided it was time to tell his story. Through his testimony and that of others involved, and well as through the Stasi file - an organization that has stalked him for half a century - Herbie Sykes uncovers an astonishing tale. It is one of love and betrayal, of the madness at the heart of the cold war, and of the greatest bike race in history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312809259381,"sku":"9781781315361","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781781315361_163ff1f2-7441-47a4-9516-12f593882f02.jpg?v=1786025787"},{"product_id":"dear-hugo","title":"Dear Hugo","description":"Hugo Koblet was the Pédaleur de Charme, a Tour de France winner arguably more gifted even than Fausto Coppi. During cycling's 'golden age' he was sporting deity; rich, charismatic and achingly beautiful. In winning the 1951 Tour he enraptured not only European sports fans but also, uniquely, European womanhood. And yet... When, in 1964, Koblet took his own life, he was penniless, homeless and utterly broken. In 'Dear Hugo', award-winning author Herbie Sykes evokes the wreckage of that life through the testimony of a fan, and through the contents of a mysterious cardboard box discovered in a Zurich apartment...","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490207768949,"sku":"9781912164196","price":17.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781912164196.jpg?v=1791212864"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-herbie-sykes.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}