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Paul Rambali

Paul Rambali is the author of Barefoot Runner, the story of Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2006.  A writer and broadcaster, he is based in Paris.  He was a rock journalist for the NME during the punk era and editor of The Face from 1980–1987. The author of two books about France and works including It’s All True – In the Cities and Jungles of Brazil, a personal odyssey exploring issues of development and culture in the Third World, he also ghost-wrote Phoolan Devi, the autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen, which has been published in 26 countries. 

Brian Reade

Brian Reade is an award-winning journalist who writes two weekly opinion columns - one current affairs, the other sport - for the Daily Mirror.  He was born in Liverpool in 1957, began his journalism career on the Reading Evening Post in 1980, and worked as a football writer and columnist at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo before moving to the Mirror in 1994.  In 2000 he was named Columnist of The Year at The British Press Gazette Awards, and in 2004 was Sports Columnist of The Year in the Sports Journalism Awards.  In 2008 Reade released his first book, 43 Years With The Same Bird, documenting his life spent following Liverpool FC.  (DL)

Ian Ridley

Ian Ridley was voted Sports’ Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards, 2007.  He is the football correspondent for The Mail on Sunday and the co-author of Tony Adams’ autobiography, Addicted and the author of Floodlit Dreams.  His most recent book, a biography of Kevin Keegan, is published by Simon and Schuster.  (DL)

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Owen Slot

Owen Slot is chief sports reporter on The Times. He has twice been named Sports Feature Writer of the Year and three times Sports News Reporter of the Year. He has had two books published, both romantic comedies, The Finishing Line and The Proposal. Like many sportswriters of the day, he is a converted sportsman, probably best remembered for his 1983 victory in the Dorking under-16 tennis singles. He is also an enthusiastic grower of tomatoes.  Owen is currently writing a series of children’s books for Puffin.  (DL)

Barbara Smit

Barbara Smit is a journalist and has written for the International Herald Tribune, The Times, Financial Times, The Economist and Time on a variety of subjects from business to sport.  Her first book, Pitch Invasion:  Adidas and the Making of Modern Sport was published by Penguin UK in 2006 and went on to sell numerous foreign editions, with HarperCollins winning US rights and publishing the book as Sneaker Wars in 2008.  Film rights have been sold.  Barbara is currently working on her second book which will follow the extraordinary story of a leading clothing brand.  (DL)

Rich Smith

Rich Smith is the author of two hilarious road trip memoirs – You Can Get Arrested for That and Around the Weird in Eighty Days, both published by Bantam Press in the UK and Random House in the USA.  Film rights to the first have just been optioned by Brilliant Pictures with the screenplay to be written by Calendar Girls writer Tim Firth.  Rich lives in Cornwall. (RW)

John Spurling

John Spurling is an Assistant Headteacher, who these days only occasionally teaches History and Politics. He has contributed to several publications at home and abroad over the last five years, including Four Four Two, When Saturday Comes, GQ Sport, Maxim, Hard Gras (Holland) and many others.  In 2005, he chaired a Four Four Two panel including Simon Kuper, Jonathan Wilson, and David Winner to select the best fifty football books ever written, which was later published as a supplement. He is also the author of four previous books on Arsenal FC, including Highbury – The Story Of Arsenal In N5 (Orion, 2006). John’s latest book, Behind Enemy Lines, was published in June 2010 by Vision Sport.  (DL)