{"title":"Simon Kuper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSimon Kuper\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a captivating blend of sports writing, keen political insight, and engaging biography. His works explore the cultural and social dimensions of football while delving into broader themes of identity, power, and society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect thought-provoking narratives that illuminate the intersections between sport and current affairs, enriched by lively storytelling and meticulous research. Whether analysing the thrills of the World Cup or the nuances of political history, Kuper’s books invite reflection and fresh perspectives.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"barca","title":"Barça","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBarça\u003c\/i\u003e by Simon Kuper offers an unparalleled dive into the extraordinary evolution of FC Barcelona, one of the globe’s most revered football clubs. This meticulously researched book explores how a regional team transformed into a sporting titan, setting benchmarks in excellence, innovation, and unrivalled success. Kuper's narrative does not merely recount matches or tournaments; instead, it delves deeply into the mechanisms and philosophies that fuelled Barça's ascendancy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book opens a window to the inner workings of the club's hierarchy, detailing the strategic decisions that have shaped its trajectory. It explains how savvy management practices, pioneering use of sports science, and an unwavering commitment to a distinctive playing style have fostered an environment where talent thrives. Particular focus is given to the revolutionary contributions of two footballing icons, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi, whose influence extends well beyond the pitch, redefining the club's ethos and direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKuper's access to the club's sanctum allows readers rare insights into the daily grind of its coaches, medics, data analysts, and nutritionists. He reveals how their collaborative efforts have sculpted a model of sporting excellence that other clubs worldwide strive to emulate. His examination uncovers the unique blend of tradition and innovation that has propelled Barcelona to perpetual heights.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMoreover, \u003ci\u003eBarça\u003c\/i\u003e addresses the socio-political and cultural dimensions of the club. Known globally for its motto \"Més que un club\" (\"More than a club\"), FC Barcelona is a beacon of Catalan identity and culture, symbolising more than just football. The book captures the essence of how this institution has influenced and mirrored societal changes, standing as a powerful symbol in its community.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA thoughtful and insightful work, Kuper’s book navigates the complexities beyond the sport, offering a compelling portrait of an institution facing contemporary challenges. As Kuper artfully states,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"I began my research thinking I was going to be explaining Barça's rise to greatness, and I have, but I've also ended up charting the decline and fall.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, \u003ci\u003eBarça\u003c\/i\u003e reflects the club's journey with all its grandeur and its pitfalls, making it an essential read not just for football aficionados but for anyone interested in leadership, strategy, and the intricate web of influences that propel a simple football club into a global phenomenon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. \u003ci\u003eMés que un\u003c\/i\u003e book!' - GARY LINEKER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45711121776876,"sku":"9781780725543","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781780725543.jpg?v=1725971601"},{"product_id":"soccernomics-world-cup-edition-by-simon-kuper-9780008559625","title":"Soccernomics (World Cup Edition)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘Magnificent… Freakonomics for football’\u003c\/em\u003e – Guardian\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFootball truly is the world’s favourite game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people pouring their hearts and souls into supporting their chosen team every week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut behind the passion are questions that all true football aficionados want answered: has football spending spun out of control? How much do managers matter? Is hosting a World Cup a poisoned chalice?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFully revised and updated ahead of the 2022 World Cup, \u003cem\u003eSoccernomics\u003c\/em\u003e is the revolutionary guide from an economist and a sports writer who answer all these questions and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46503125319916,"sku":"9780008559625","price":30.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/430363482191.jpg?v=1748625552"},{"product_id":"chums-by-simon-kuper-9781788167390","title":"Chums","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e Bestseller and \u003cem\u003eTimes\u003c\/em\u003e Best Book of 2022\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePower. Privilege. Parties.\u003cbr\u003e It's a very small world at the top.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eBrilliant ... traces Brexit back to the debating chambers of the Oxford Union in the 1980s\u003c\/q\u003e - James O'Brien\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eA searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters\u003c\/q\u003e - Matthew Parris\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eA sparkling firework of a book\u003c\/q\u003e - Lynn Barber, \u003cem\u003eSpectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eExquisite and depressing in equal measure\u003c\/q\u003e - Matthew Syed, \u003cem\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Dominic Cummings, Daniel Hannan, and Jacob Rees-Mogg: Whitehall is swarming with old Oxonians. They debated each other in tutorials, ran against each other in student elections, and attended the same balls and black tie dinners.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey aren't just colleagues - they are peers, rivals, friends. And, when they walked out of the world of student debates onto the national stage, they brought their university politics with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEleven of the fifteen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford. In \u003cem\u003eChums\u003c\/em\u003e, Simon Kuper traces how the rarefied and privileged atmosphere of this narrowest of talent pools - and the friendships and worldviews it created - shaped modern Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA damning look at the university clique-turned-Commons majority that will blow the doors of Westminster wide open and change the way you look at our democracy forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46529892253932,"sku":"9781788167390","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/18202943482824.jpg?v=1749237388"},{"product_id":"impossible-city-by-simon-kuper-9781800816480","title":"Impossible City","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eChums\u003c\/em\u003e comes an explorer's tale of a naif getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on his family's neighbourhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis century, Paris has globalised, gentrified, and been shocked into realising its role as the crucible of civilizational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46549089190124,"sku":"9781800816480","price":41.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4264893482829.jpg?v=1749879474"},{"product_id":"the-happy-traitor-by-simon-kuper-9781781259382","title":"The Happy Traitor","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA deeply human read, wonderfully written, on the foibles of a fascinating, flawed, treacherous and sort of likeable character. - Philippe Sands\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThose people who were betrayed were not innocent people. They were no better nor worse than I am. It's all part of the intelligence world. If the man who turned me in came to my house today, I'd invite him to sit down and have a cup of tea.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGeorge Blake was the last remaining Cold War spy. As a Senior Officer in the British Intelligence Service who was a double agent for the Soviet Union, his actions had devastating consequences for Britain. Yet he was also one of the least known double agents and remained unrepentant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1961, Blake was sentenced to forty-two years of imprisonment for betraying to the KGB all of the Western operations in which he was involved, and the names of hundreds of British agents working behind the Iron Curtain. This was the longest sentence for espionage ever to have been handed down by a British court.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the surface, Blake was a charming, intelligent and engaging man, and most importantly, a seemingly committed patriot. Underneath, a ruthlessly efficient mole and key player in the infamous 'Berlin Tunnel' operation. This illuminating biography tracks Blake from humble beginnings as a teenage courier for the Dutch underground during the Second World War, to the sensational prison-break from Wormwood Scrubs that inspired Hitchcock to write a screenplay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough a combination of personal interviews, research and unique access to Stasi records, journalist Simon Kuper unravels who Blake truly was, what he was capable of, and why he did it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46553722913004,"sku":"9781781259382","price":23.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/5294443482822.jpg?v=1750078966"},{"product_id":"impossible-city-by-simon-kuper-9781800816503","title":"Impossible City","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eKuper is a shrewd observer in this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFrom the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. 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Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the 'Grand Paris' project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a captivating memoir of today's Paris without the clichés.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46593597571308,"sku":"9781800816503","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4265123482829.jpg?v=1751003862"},{"product_id":"good-chaps-by-simon-kuper-9781805221227","title":"Good Chaps","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAt a time when democracy feels threatened, Simon Kuper is fighting hard for a better vision of politics - he is brutally honest about our problems but never loses hope that we can build a better democracy\u003c\/em\u003e Rory Stewart\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn intelligible, compelling and enraging narrative ... how the Good Chaps get away with it\u003c\/em\u003e New Statesman\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe 'Good Chaps' theory holds that those who rise to power in the UK can be trusted to follow the rules and do the right thing. They're good chaps, after all. Yet Britain appears to have been taken over by bad chaps, and politics is awash with financial scandals, donors who have practically bought shares in political parties, and a shameless contempt for the rules.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper, author of the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller \u003cem\u003eChums\u003c\/em\u003e, exposes how corruption took control of public life, and asks: how can we get politicians to behave like good chaps again?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46833066017004,"sku":"9781805221227","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/20226573482830.jpg?v=1758434069"},{"product_id":"world-cup-fever-by-simon-kuper-9781805224112","title":"World Cup Fever","description":"The football World Cup is the biggest sporting competition on Earth - a chance every four years for the greatest players to win international glory, and a month-long media spectacle that's watched by an audience of billions. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the tournament has changed beyond recognition since the inaugural event in Montevideo, Uruguay, in July 1930. What was once a semi-professional meeting beset by haphazard play has evolved to become a game of multinational buyouts, dubious ethics and questionable aims - and the new era of football has much to tell us about the globalised world.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon Kuper is among the vanishingly small number of writers who have attended every World Cup since 1990. World Cup Fever is his journey to find the heart of football, through the nine tournaments he's experienced first-hand - from watching matches in half-empty stands during Italia 90, a tournament that at times felt like a village fete, to witnessing the French triumph at home in 1998, South Africa's national dream in 2010 and the troubling legacy of Qatar 2022.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTold on the pitch and in the stands, and in the pubs, front rooms and on the streets, this is the story of how football has changed the world.","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47289311559916,"sku":"9781805224112","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4bb0f5adfea560d5ad745203761a145c.jpg?v=1770600711"},{"product_id":"soccernomics-by-stefan-szymanski-9780008811754","title":"Soccernomics","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe classic bestseller that changed how the world thinks about football\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Quite magnificent – a sort of \u003cem\u003eFreakanomics\u003c\/em\u003e of football.' \u003cstrong\u003eJonathan Wilson, \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'If you're a football fan, I'll save you some time: read this book' \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFootball truly is the world’s favourite game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people pouring their hearts and souls into supporting their chosen team every week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut behind the passion are questions that all true football fans want answered: has football spending spun out of control? 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