Ian Ridley

IAN RIDLEY is the author of 14 sports books, including the Sunday Times No.1 best selling Addicted, with the former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. The follow-up book Sober was published in 2017, 20 years on. Another of his books, The Breath of Sadness: On love, grief and cricket, which is a poignant account of coping with the death of his trailblazing sports journalist wife Vikki Orvice, was also shortlisted for the William Hill. In addition, three other titles have been shortlisted in the British Sports Book Awards.

Over a 40-year career in journalism, Ian was a sports writer for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer and the Mail on Sunday, for whom he was Chief Football Writer. He was named Sports Journalist of the Year in the 2007 British Press Awards and nominated on two other occasions.

Ian has also written for television, including more than 20 episodes of the Sky One drama series Dream Team, and has in development a film script on the life story of the world champion boxer Darren Barker, based on the autobiography on which the two collaborated, A Dazzling Darkness.

After completing a Masters in Crime and Thriller Writing at Cambridge University in recent years, Ian has published two novels, Outer Circle and Don't Talk, books 1 and 2 in the series of Jan Mason investigative journalist books.