The inside story of football's golden era

Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths

George Best's final bestseller - a personal memoir of the game's greatest era

One last look back at the tortured life of the most charismatic footballer of our generation

Best's love letter to the Beautiful Game and his own youth

A complete history of the sport before money and marketing took over

Epitomising football's new-found glamour in the 60s as a Busby protégé at Manchester United, George Best dazzled on the pitch and lived the high life off it. Christened the Fifth Beatle at his peak, Best was the first pop star footballer. Unable to cope with the success and fame that his talent brought him, Best fell into alcoholism and his life became littered with tales of women, sex and drink. Despite well-documented problems with his health and private life, George Best never lost the passion that made him an icon to his many fans. 
 
Co-writer Harry Harris is the Group Chief Football Writer for Express Newspapers and a regular pundit on TV and radio. Twice British Sports Journalist of the Year and the only sports writer to win Sports Scoop of the Year twice, he is the author of over 30 football books, including the bestselling Pele - His Life and Times and the recent All the Way, Jose.

'We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others' George Best 
 
Written in the months before he died, Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths is George's farewell letter to the great footballing era in which he burned so brightly - a personal history of the golden years before TV and agents changed everything. From the breaking of the maximum wage to the cusp of the first million-pound player, it follows the triumphs and tragedies of every season from 1960 to 1974. It is the story of our greatest footballing generation - Greaves, Moore, Law, Charlton, Osgood, Lorimer, Jennings, Hurst and, of course, Best himself.

Adventures On and Off the Pitch

Scoring At Half-Time

The best-selling collection of football memoirs finally in paperback

The birds, the booze, the rows...an entertaining tell all

Blessed with an extraordinary gift, George Best brought a beauty and grace to football. Christened the Fifth Beatle at his peak, Best was the first pop star footballer and had teenage girls flocking to Old Trafford decades before the likes of Giggs and Beckham. Unable to cope with the success and fame that his talent brought him, Best fell into alcoholism and his life has been littered with tales of women, sex and drink. Despite well-documented problems with his health and private life over the past few years, George Best has shown that he still retains the energy and character that have made him an icon to his many fans.

Michael Parkinson: 'What was the nearest to kick-off that you made love to a woman?'George Best: 'Er- I think it was half-time actually'George Best was the first celebrity footballer and to many the greatest British player ever. In Scoring at Half-Time he gathers together his favourite memories, stories and anecdotes from his experiences in and out of the game over the last forty years. No dressing room door is left unopened, no player's bar tale untold and no secret kept in this fond, humorous look at football's golden era from the man who was usually there when it happened. Inside stories and lurid tales about George, Bobby, Denis, Nobby and Fergie amongst others. Scoring at Half-Time will delight anyone who has ever wanted to spend time in the company of the footballing legend.

Blessed - The Autobiography

Legendary both on and off the pitch, this is the definitive George Best autobiography, in paperback

His autobiography tells everything...this is a powerful, unexpectedly moving story

Fascinating-honest to the point of self-laceration-Best will always remain a breath-taking example of supreme talent and courage

Where this book differs from the others - and there have been a few - is in Best's attempts to face his demons

Co-author Roy Collins has been a Sports columnist for over 16 years and is a personal friend of George Best. He was a chief sports writer on Today for ten years followed by the People Sport, and currently the Guardian and Sunday Telegraph.

George Best needs little introduction. A legend in his own lifetime, he is undoubtedly the greatest footballer the UK has ever produced. Blessed with an extraordinary gift he brought a beauty and grace to the game never before seen. But Best was unable to cope with the success and fame his football genius brought. His fabled story is littered with tales of women and sex and, of course, alcohol. 
 
Much has been written about Best, but very little substantiated by the man himself. That is until George Best opened his heart and engaged us in one of the most exhilarating life stories for years, Blessed. In his own words George recounts the halcyon days at Manchester United, the big games and European Cup win of '68. And then there's the heartbreaking truth about the death of his mother and his struggles with alcohol that forced him to face up to a life without drink. 
 
Blessed reveals the man behind the up-for-a-laugh, boozy, womanizing stereotype that had dogged George Best for so long. Open and honest about his mistakes, George is also incredibly candid about his triumphs, his regrets, and, only three years before his death, what he had hoped for the future. 
 
'Don't coach him, he's a genius' Sir Matt Busby 
 
'Unquestionably the greatest' Sir Alex Ferguson

George Best

This selection of BBC archive interviews with celebrated footballer George Best begins in the 1970s, when Best is enjoying success at a young age. It continues into the 1980s, by which time he has become a husband and father and has also had to come to terms with his alcoholism. Career and personal highs and lows are discussed, along with recollections of his upbringing and reflections on relationships, drinking and his deep passion for football. Final comments are heard in an interview with Nicky Campbell from 2000. 
 
The interviews included are: The World of George Best, BBC Television (first broadcast 11 February 1970); Parkinson, BBC One (first broadcast 17 February 1973); Sport on Two, BBC Radio 2 (first broadcast 19 September 1981); The John Dunn Show, BBC Radio 2 (first broadcast 21 September 1981); Motives, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 25 July 1983); A Word With Williams, BBC Radio (first broadcast 6 January 1985); Nicky Campbell, BBC Radio 1 (first broadcast 1 January 2000). 
 
Due to the age and nature of this archive material, the sound quality may vary. 
 
©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

George Best

Books by George Best

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter