July 2015
‘Asks the tough, necessary questions about drugs, but finds more answers in a vibrant national athletics culture’ – The Guardian’s best sports books of 2015
‘Entertaining and lively. Moore is an open-minded and engaging writer who’s willing to hear his interviewees out. Because maybe there is something in the yams, and maybe we can all still enjoy the dream,’ Esquire
‘Moore sets out to establish the rumoured role of doping in Jamaica’s success. In this he can’t reach a conclusion but that does not detract from a great story.’ – The Times’s best sports books of 2015
‘A fascinating account of how a Caribbean island came to rule the world in the art and science of running very fast indeed,’ The Independent
‘Excellent’ – Rick Broadbent, The Times
‘Absorbing’ – Richard Williams, The Guardian
‘Compelling… thoughtful and wide-ranging… leaves you feeling optimistic,’– Literary Review
‘What this book does is capture the spirit of the sport in Jamaica… Moore clearly revelled in this grass roots exuberance and it is hard, reading this book, not to do so too,’– Oliver Poole, Independent On Sunday
June 2015
‘Moore tells the inside story of some of the Tour’s greatest modern exploits’ – bicycling.com
‘As he did in Slaying the Badger and Tour de France 100, author Richard Moore peers behind the curtains of the sport of cycling, sitting down with some of the Tour’s modern icons, and its scoundrels, to unravel and recount strange tales from 20 great stages in recent Tour de France history’ – VeloNews magazine
‘Richard Moore is his own secret weapon. [He] is incontestably one of the finest published sports writers of our time. Étape is his finest hour. There will be a great number of books about the Tour de France published in the next month, but if your appetite for yellow extends to only one, make it this one’ – The Washing Machine Post
‘In Étape, the Scottish author has dug deep beneath the surface and found the more obscure, but fascinating tales from the Tour that will keep the reader entertained. The level of detail is astonishing.’ – Canadian Cycling magazine
“All the world’s a stage. Étape captures the best of them with the heroes delivering the most compelling of lines. Moore has selected 20 stages with the results not only defining a race but what it means to be a human being placed in the centre of events that strain every sinew and make extraordinary demands on one’s emotional and psychological stability … Mesmerising.’ – The Herald
‘Etape, then, is – like the Tour de France itself – complicated and that complexity is actually the hidden central narrative of the book. And, because of the way Moore handles that complexity, even seasoned fans of the sport may find themselves reaching the end of Étape and thinking of the Tour in a different light.’ – Podium Cafe
‘The entire book is fascinating.’ – Daily Record
‘Readable, enjoyable and the kind of book to dip in and out of. Étape is a timely reminder that the Tour de France is packed with too many stories to tell.’ – The Inner Ring
‘Moore is a consummate story teller. Start reading a chapter and you will not put it down until it is finished. His is a writing style that is comfortable and compelling, a style that is a pleasure to read no matter what the topic might be.’ – Cycling Utah
‘For a truly luscious souvenir of this year…I’d go for Richard Moore’s Étape which revisits the men behind some of the most dramatic, evocative and controversial stages in Tour de France history’ – The Observer
‘A wonderfully readable romp through 20 of the most compelling and newsworthy stages in Tour de France history’ – thetour.co.uk
‘It’s like a Tour mixtape, a collection of greatest hits (stories about Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault), album tracks (Claudio Chiappucci, Joël Pelier) and B-sides (Wilfried Nelissen, José Luis Viejo, some of which you may already be familiar with, some of which you will be hearing for the first time.’ – Peloton, ‘must reads of 2014’
JUNE 2012
‘The book will bring armchair athletes to the edge of their seats – and leave them with a very nasty taste in their mouths’ – Mail on Sunday
‘The book is a magnificent document about the Carl Lewis-Ben Johnson rivalry. It plunges you deep into the bitterness that marked their enmity and because Moore is the kind of journalist who will speak to 17 people when he could get the story from two, the breadth and detail is astonishing’ – The Times
‘A remarkably fresh read given the amount of ink already spilled on the topic. Author Richard Moore has delivered what is certainly the most comprehensive account, and as close to definitive as possible without giving all the “answers”’ – The Herald
‘Probably the finest sports book published this year’ – thewashingmachinepost.net
‘A captivating and detailed account … it reads like a thriller, which is exactly the right tone to adopt by author Richard Moore for a story dripping with skulduggery and intrigue … compelling’ – SundayExpress
‘The sportswriter Richard Moore tells the story at a sprinter’s pace in his rollicking and well-researched The Dirtiest Race in History’ – Simon Kuper, Financial Times
‘The book will bring armchair athletes to the edge of their seats – and leave them with a very nasty taste in their mouths’ – The Mail on Sunday
‘Written with a fine sense of balance, timing and tension’ – The Guardian
‘It is always a sign of a good book that you pick it up and never want to put it down. The kind which you rattle through forty pages or so without realising, due to the brilliant writing and readability of the material. Richard Moore has managed to write a book so well thought out, so painstakingly researched, that you cannot fail to appreciate just how good it is.’ – theguardian.com
SLAYING THE BADGER
May 2014
‘Moore entertainingly unravels the complexities of the relationships within the peloton during a three-week stage race, the sort of battle in which alliances can shift from one mountain peak to another and your enemy’s enemy can suddenly become your most valued friend.’ – Richard Williams, The Guardian
‘From the opening pages this is a book that grips. Combining great insight, interviews and anecdotes with wonderfully vivid writing, it is thoroughly researched and well written. Like the event itself, the book is so engrossing, you don’t want it to end’ – Scotland on Sunday
‘As a matter of some urgency, arm yourself first with Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore and immerse yourself in the epic story of the 1986 Tour and the two greatest riders of their era. … The race and the book builds towards a gripping page turning climax which you don’t want to end.’ – Brendan Gallagher, Daily Telegraph
‘A gripping narrative of this psychological and physical three-week war… It is good to be reminded that the race used to have twice-a-day stages, that helmets didn’t always obscure the riders and that technology once had little place in the Tour.’ – Wall Street Journal
‘Captivating… Slaying the Badger is a mixture of clear-eyed journalistic analysis and unashamed nostalgia’– Times Literary Supplement
September 2012
‘A cracking story…I couldn’t put it down’ – Hugh Porter, BBC cycling commentator
‘An excellent book’ – The Sunday Times
‘An inspiring tale. And in Richard Moore it has a splendid chronicler.’ – Independent on Sunday
‘This is a must-read book that tells a story that had to be told’ – Graeme Obree
JUNE 2008
‘What really distinguishes the book, apart from the structural innovations, apart from the puzzle itself, is the tone: gentle, wise, vivid when it needs to be, and entirely compelling. The book also stands as a terrific document of subculture history: working-class, sporting, competitive but also mutual. I found myself really moved by the idea of the ‘drum’, on the loch shore, with all its rituals of gratitude and sociability.’ – Robert Macfarlane
‘A gripping read about a fascinating sportsman. Richard Moore goes ‘in search of Robert Millar’, one of sport’s quirkiest, most enigmatic characters, and along the way we learn a lot not just about Millar but about the sport of cycling at an important point in its history, and the psychology of elite sport. Ultimately, in many ways the search proves to be fruitless, but the story is somehow even stronger for that.’ – Alastair Campbell
‘Moore is a gifted writer who covers the failed drugs test, Tours de France, sex-change rumours and “escape from Scotland” with panache, culminating in a captivating e-mail exchange with the reclusive Millar.’ – Rick Broadbent, The Times.
‘A fascinating book… Trying to piece together the Robert Millar story is a little like rummaging around the Mary Celeste but Moore has done splendidly.’ – Brendan Gallagher, Daily Telegraph
‘This book is not only a very interesting study of a little-known man, but also a bible to anybody aiming to be the best in their field, a lesson in how to reach the top and the hardships and sacrifices it takes to get there.’ – David Millar
‘This year’s must-read… Moore’s meticulous but lively book skillfully steers the reader through the Gorbals-born Millar’s early life, pro career and post-retirement disappearance.’ – Press Association
‘A passionate study of the JD Salinger of cycling’ – Graham Robb, Daily Telegraph
‘Meticulously researched and lovingly constructed’ – Alan Fraser, Daily Mail
‘A prodigious work of research… delivers overdue illumination of a fascinating Scot.’ – Doug Gillon, The Herald.
‘Richard Moore’s excellent book [is] a fascinating character study of Britain’s most successful Tour de France cyclist. At first, Millar’s taciturn nature and downright arrogance make him anything but likeable. Yet as Moore peels away the prickly exterior, there emerges a darkly humorous, fiercely intelligent man.’ – Martin Greig, The Herald
‘Cycling is a sport that seems to inspire good writing: the pace, drama and characters lend themselves to an unfolding of tension on the page and this exhaustive account is written with genuine passion.’ – Books Quarterly.
‘An extraordinary tale of an extraordinary man.’ – Andrew Baker, Daily Telegraph
‘As riveting a read as any detective story, as well as an intriguing attempt to separate myth from fact.’ – Metro
‘Outstanding.’ – Scotland on Sunday
‘[Moore’s] quarry proves elusive, but the search is worth the trouble… Moore is excellent on the Glaswegian roots, but as Millar climbs to the cycling heights, Moore keeps pace… Here is, probably, the definitive portrait of one of Scotland’s greatest sportsmen: obsessively driven, painfully shy.’ – William Fotheringham, The Guardian.
‘A magnificent book… through the words of Richard Moore and the trail-blazing of the Scot who did, and continues to do, it his way, you will get a great understanding of much of the mystique of the sport.’ – Phil Liggett
‘Fascinating… earnest and lively.’ – Samuel Abt, International Herald Tribune