Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
A Load of Old Balls by James Harkin & Anna Ptaszynski
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

A Load of Old Balls

The QI History of Sport

$41.99

Get for $14.99 with membership
Length 8 hours 39 minutes
Language English
Narrators Anna Ptaszynski & James Harkin

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Previously published as EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR: THE QI BOOK OF SPORTS

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS

'Top Bins! A personal best, a lap record and a hole in one for when rain has stopped play.' ALAN DAVIES
'The trivia book of the season . . . magnificent.' SPECTATOR

Hop, skip and jump into this wonderfully curious grand tour of the world of sports, brought to you by QI Elves James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski.

From sport's weirdest rules to its most unlikely heroes, via comically large cricket bats, pole-vaulting priests, creative football chants and exploding billiard balls, each chapter of A Load of Old Balls is brimming with surprising facts and intriguing stories.

Even if you've never asked yourself what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of 'bicycle face' or what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed, this book will give you the astonishing answers - and plenty more besides.

**

For more from the team behind QI's hit TV show, check out the QI FACTS series of books, @qikipedia, their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.com or visit qi.com.

James Harkin is a senior researcher, writer and script-editor for the BBC's QI, and one-fourth of the award-winning podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. He has authored 13 books with the QI Elves and toured sell-out shows across the world, from the London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Anna Ptaszynski is a senior researcher, writer and script-editor for the BBC's QI, and one-fourth of the award-winning podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. She has contributed to 11 books with the QI Elves and toured sell-out shows across the world, from the London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House. She is a long-suffering fan of Charlton Athletic.

Anna Ptaszynski is a senior researcher, writer and script-editor for the BBC's QI, and one-fourth of the award-winning podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. She has contributed to 11 books with the QI Elves and toured sell-out shows across the world, from the London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House. She is a long-suffering fan of Charlton Athletic.

James Harkin is a senior researcher, writer and script-editor for the BBC's QI, and one-fourth of the award-winning podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. He has authored 13 books with the QI Elves and toured sell-out shows across the world, from the London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting