Father’s Day recommendations from Team Bookends

As Father’s Day quickly approaches, here at Team Bookends we’ve put our heads together to come up with a list of all the brilliant books we’ll be gifting to our brilliant (but difficult to buy for) Dads!

For the Dad that loves cycling…

The Art of Cycling by James Hibbard

From former professional cyclist, James Hibbard, The Art of Cycling is a love letter to the sport of cycling. Tracing James’ journey regaining his love for the sport, he interweaves cycling, philosophy, and personal narrative, providing readers with a deep understanding into the highs and lows of being an elite athlete, the limits of approaching any sporting pursuit from a strictly rational perspective, and how the philosophical and often counterintuitive lessons derived from sport can be applied to other areas of life.

Accessible to everyone from the hardened racer to the casual fan, The Art of Cycling interweaves cycling, philosophy and personal narrative  to show how cycling can shed new light on age-old questions of selfhood, meaning and purpose.

If your Dad likes to be entertained by the best…

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

From the Academy Award®-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call ‘catching greenlights.’

For the Dad who thinks he’s a Bear Grylls adventurer (or likes to thinks so!) …

Who Dares Wins by Phil Campion

The sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Born Fearless, Who Dares Wins is the hard-hitting and heartfelt memoir of SAS legend, Phil Campion. This is the inspirational and gritty account of life as an elite soldier.

– Wild and Shocking Childhood Stories – A chequered past, from terrible abuse suffered in a string of kids’ homes to psychological abuse suffered at a top public school.

– The Royal Hampshires – the so called “green army” and laying the foundation for what was to come.Tales from the the brutal trial of SAS selection, and selected experiences thereafter.

– Adventures in The Gold Mines of West Africa – my time immediately after leaving the SAS, providing private military services across mineral-rich but horrendously war-torn West Africa.

– Frying Alive In Togo – the chilling true story of how I was arrested in Togo, West Africa, for travelling with military equipment (to deliver to a team working in Togo), and how I was left to fry in a steel shipping container.

– Body-guarding The Stars – my life in the world of celebrity. In between my African adventures, I body-guarded the likes of Led Zep, Oasis, Kasabien, Dizzy Rascal and Pro Green. Jaw-dropping stories to quicken the blood.

– Big Phil’s War – the gripping, behind-the-scenes stories from my time in Syria with the Free Syrian Forces (YPG/J) and in Northern Iraq with the Kurdish Peshmerga, acting as a roving reporter for Sky TV (and more often than not under fire)

If your Dad is into being the top chef in the kitchen…

Simply Raymond by Raymond Blanc

Featuring recipes from Raymond’s ITV series – SIMPLY RAYMOND BLANC

‘Of the many cookery books that I have written, this one has the most extraordinary story,’ says Raymond Blanc. His long-held plan to write a simple cookbook – inspired by his mother, Maman Blanc – began months before the Covid pandemic hit.

Suddenly everything changed, and Raymond, like the rest of the world, struggled to find a way through lockdown. At home, and isolated from his family – as well as his army of chefs at the world-renowned two-star Michelin restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and his Brasserie Blanc restaurants – Raymond cooked and cooked. He opted for the simple dishes that evoked the happy memories, provided the connection to those he could not be with. He focused on recipes that were neither a challenge nor fussy. They required ingredients that were easily-available and needed only basic kitchen equipment. The result is Simply Raymond. It is a collection of his favourite home-cooked recipes – the dishes that mean the most to him; the ones that connect family and friends, and dishes that took him on stove-side travels to other parts of the world.

Dish by dish, Simply Raymond presents an irresistible feast. This is cooking from the heart, and here you’ll find must-make dishes to add to your weekly repertoire, as well as others for special occasions.

There is also a profound poignancy to this book. Shortly before Raymond finished writing it, his mother sadly passed away. This book is a heartfelt tribute to her, created with passion and thoughtfulness. It is also a testament to the great pleasure derived from stepping into a kitchen, simply to cook simply for others. Something he has done all of his life.

For the Dad who loves a thriller but also sports (this Grisham novel takes you to a basketball court!)…

Sooley by John Grisham 

ONE MAN. ONE HOPE. ONCE CHANCE TO BECOME A LEGEND.

ONE MAN
Seventeen-year-old Samuel Sooleyman comes from a village in South Sudan, a war-torn country where one third of the population is a refugee. His great love is basketball: his prodigious leap and lightning speed make him an exceptional player. And it may also bring him his big chance: he has been noticed by a coach taking a youth team to the United States.

ONE HOPE
If he gets through the tournament, Samuel’s life will change beyond recognition. But it’s the longest of long shots. His talent is raw and uncoached. There are hundreds of better-known players ahead of him. And he must leave his family behind, at least at the beginning.

ONE CHANCE
As American success beckons, devastating news reaches Samuel from home. Caught between his dream and the nightmare unfolding thousands of miles away, ‘Sooley’, as he’s nicknamed by his classmates, must make hard choices about his future. This quiet, dedicated boy must do what no other player has achieved in the history of his chosen game: become a legend in twelve short months.

Global bestseller John Grisham takes you to a different kind of court in this gripping and incredibly moving novel that showcases his storytelling powers in an entirely new light.

The gift for Dad’s who are fans of royalty and fascinated by the amazing life of Prince Philip…

Philip: The Final Portrait by Gyles Brandreth

Philip is the perfect book to gift all those dad’s who are royalty fans and interested in the amazing life of Prince Philip!

‘As a sparkling celebration of Prince Philip, the book will be hard to beat’ – THE TELEGRAPH

This is the story of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – the longest-serving consort to the longest-reigning sovereign in British history. It is an extraordinary story, told with unique insight and authority by an author who knew the prince for more than forty years.

Philip – elusive, complex, controversial, challenging, often humorous, sometimes irascible – is the man Elizabeth II once described as her ‘constant strength and guide’. Who was he? What was he really like? What is the truth about those ‘gaffes’ and the rumours of affairs? This is the final portrait of an unexpected and often much-misunderstood figure. It is also the portrait of a remarkable marriage that endured for more than seventy years.

Philip and Elizabeth were both royal by birth, both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but, in temperament and upbringing, they were two very different people. The Queen’s childhood was loving and secure, the Duke’s was turbulent; his grandfather assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated when he was only ten. Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947, aged twenty-one and twenty-six.

Philip: The Final Portrait tells the story of two contrasting lives, assesses the Duke of Edinburgh’s character and achievement, and explores the nature of his relationships with his wife, his children and their families – and with the press and public and those at court who were suspicious of him in the early days. This is a powerful, revealing and, ultimately, moving account of a long life and a remarkable royal partnership.