Showing results by narrator "Andy Cresswell" in Biographies & Memoirs

Gary Speed’s tragic death on November 27th, 2011, rocked the football world. Aged just 42, he was found hanged in the garage of his home. As a long-standing legend of the game and manager of Wales, he appeared to have everything to live for. Now, as he would have approached his 50th birthday, family and friends come together to speak honestly and emotionally about the man they knew and loved. Wife Louise opens her heart for the first time and talks in depth about her life with Gary and her own personal journey since his death.

Before agents and TV mega-rights ushered in multi-millionaire players, footballers’ wages were capped, with even the game's biggest names earning barely more than a plumber or electrician. Footballing legends shared a bond of borderline penury with the crowds they entertained on Saturday afternoons, on pitches that were far away from the pristine lawns of the modern era. Instead of the sports cars driven by today's top players, the stars of yesteryear travelled to matches on public transport and returned to homes as modest as those of their supporters.

This account describes how a 28-year-old from Watford, Nick Leeson, plunged Barings Bank into ruin. In 1994, Leeson seemed to be making the company millions of pounds a week, but he explains how the cover-up of a colleague's small error led to the crash of Britain's oldest merchant bank.

Mike Phillips is one of Welsh rugby's most decorated players. With multiple Grand Slams and Lions tours under his belt, he was revered all over the world for his aggressive, in-your-face style of play. Off the field, his early years were littered with controversy and scandal as he wrestled with the new-found fame that success brought. Phillips opens up about every aspect of his much talked about career, from the many glorious highs to struggling with fame, coping with pressure, dealing with rejection and retirement while ultimately finding personal peace and happiness.

This is a unique account of the Falkland War, told by former Commando Medic Malcolm Hazell, who led a team of 39 men, initially at Ajax Bay, and subsequently at Teal Inlet, where they were alongside members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Commandos specialist Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre (M&AW Cadre).

A new kind of computer con has emerged in the past few years. It's technically mundane but psychologically brutal: using false threats of arrest, scammers trick low-income victims into repaying debts that do not exist. And one rainy day last January, they accidentally targeted one of the smartest hackers around. Mike Davis is a good guy who gets to play at being a bad guy, a man who gets paid handsomely for testing the limits of his clients' security systems. Davis wanted a new challenge; when the fraudsters called, he realised he'd found it.