Richard Sydenham

Richard has proved that anything in life is possible, if you want it bad enough. He left school in Birmingham, UK, with minimal qualifications and trained as a British Gas engineer. After realising pretty quickly that life wasn't for him, he chose to follow his heart instead and trained to become a journalist. He then spent the next 20 years or so working as a sports writer, predominantly on football and cricket. This job took him around the world to places like Australia for the Ashes, the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup, the Indian sub-continent for many series, and lots of Premier League football grounds. While he has since left journalism behind, Richard still loves to write books. He has written eight books to date, three on football, four on cricket and the award-winning biography on Hollywood movie star Steve McQueen, The Cooler King.