Hodder signs 'ultimate Lion' Ian McGeechan

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired the memoir of Sir Ian McGeechan, a former Lions rugby player and head coach.

The publisher said McGeechan is “the ultimate Lion” after he played for the rugby team in its unbeaten 1974 tour to South Africa, and again in the 1977 tour to New Zealand, before head coaching the team on four Lions tours.

The book will be published on 18th May 2017, just before the British and Irish Lions face one of their toughest tours taking on the All Blacks team in New Zealand in June, where the Lions have only won one of their last 12 Tests.

Roddy Bloomfield, consultant editor at Hodder & Stoughton, acquired world English language rights from David Luxton at David Luxton Associates to The Lions: When the Going Gets Tough which will comprise McGeechan’s reflections on life as a Lion.

Bloomfield said: “Ian McGeechan was a star performer at outside centre for Scotland and later an inspirational coach for both Scotland and the Lions. Over the past 45 years Ian McGeechan has done as much as anyone to heighten interest and engagement throughout the world of rugby. The Lions: When the Going Gets Tough splendidly conveys the massive excitement that is generated whenever there is a Lions tour.”