A Load of Old Balls: The QI History of Sport

The most improbable, fascinating and endlessly entertaining sporting facts and stories, from prehistory to the present day.

Did you know that Henry VIII owned the first pair of football boots? Or that David Attenborough is responsible for yellow tennis balls?

A Load of Old Balls is the curious story of us and sport. It's about our mind-blowingly determined attempts to be the fastest, the strongest, the most skillful. In this endlessly entertaining tale of play and belonging, astonishing violence and jaw-dropping cheating, we learn what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed and discover why Michael Palin was disqualified from a conker tournament. Crossing millennia, continents and cultures, Harkin and Ptaszynski – the brainy researchers for BBC's QI and co-hosts of No Such Thing As A Fish – show us sport as we've never seen it before.

"The trivia book of the season . . . magnificent." SPECTATOR

** Published in hardback as Everything to Play For .