Dec 3, 2020
Ben Dirs: As of winter 2024, I have ghost-written 20 memoirs, including Amazon and Sunday Times bestsellers, and authored four non-fiction books. My first book, We Could be Heroes (with Tom Fordyce, 2009) was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Too Many Reasons to Live by Rob Burrow won the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards autobiography of the year, was shortlisted for the William Hill and serialised in a national newspaper. Other newspaper serialisations include Who Am I? by Danny Cipriani and Everything Happens for a Reason by Danny Care. The majority of my subjects have been sportspeople, although I have also worked with a former special forces soldier, a paramedic, a heavy metal bassist, a dog trainer, a man who ran 401 marathons in 401 days and a woman who witnessed 300 executions. Before deciding to focus on books full-time, I spent 16 years working for BBC Sport, specialising in boxing but covering pretty much everything, from football to darts. As a freelance journalist, I have written for BBC News, the Guardian, ESPN, CNN, Eurosport and Boxing News, among many other publications. I have also scripted numerous podcasts about sport and music.
Website: www.bendirs.co.uk
Twitter: @bendirs1
Dec 3, 2020
George Dobell is the Senior Cricket Correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. In the past he has written for the Guardian and Spin Magazine. Most recently, he collaborated with Jonathan Trott on his autobiography, Unguarded: My Autobiography (Sphere, September 2016), shortlisted for the Cricket Book of the Year at the Cross Sports Book awards.
Dec 3, 2024
Karen Dobres is a writer, at the moment. She has had, and is still having, what is now officially called a ’Squiggly Career’.
She got off the career ladder when she was scouted, while still at Bristol University, for a London modelling agency. In search of a ‘proper job’ she ended up for a while at the Essex Chronicle in newspaper sales.
A close friend’s mental health challenges led her to also start volunteering at Samaritans and it was then that the next major squiggle occurred, as she decided to train as a Person-Centred Counsellor in London. Catwalk modelling recommenced, to pay for the counselling course. As a recently qualified, and unusually young, counsellor, she was offered the chance by Polygram Records to set up their first ever in-house counselling service, for staff and stars.
Motherhood brought this phase to a close. Two children later, and after a stint as Parent Governor at their school, Karen began to write, possibly as self-therapy. Initially, this was her own fashion blog, but grew into articles for The Guardian, HuffPost and various other journals. Her modelling career was briefly resurrected for a shoot with Knitting Magazine, but the most recent squiggle saw her unexpectedly elected as a Director at her local club, Lewes FC, where she was one of the pioneers of the club’s, world-first, EqualityFC campaign, whereby the women’s team received equal resourcing to the men’s team.
Pitch Invasion is her first book and recounts her seven years there as feminist-in-residence (not official title).
Follow Karen on:
Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, Facebook or BlueSky
Dec 3, 2020
Andrew Downie is the South American sports correspondent for Reuters. He has been a foreign correspondent for three decades, living in Mexico, Haiti and Brazil and his work has appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, the Guardian and GQ, amongst many others. His first book, Doctor Socrates: Footballer, Philosopher, Legend, was the definitive biography of the late Brazilian captain and was published by Simon & Schuster in March 2017. It has sold into many territories around the world. His latest book, an oral history of the 1970 World Cup entitled The Greatest Show on Earth will be published by Polaris in September 2021. He divides his time between the UK and Brazil.
Twitter: @adowniebrazil
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