Faber scores sporty new QI book by Harkin and Ptaszynski

Faber has scored a new book by James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski, and will be taking its range of QI titles in a sporting direction with Everything to Play For: The QI Book of Sports.

Associate publisher Laura Hassan acquired world rights from the authors. Faber will publish in October 2023 in hardback. It will be the publisher’s 23rd "QI" book

Ptaszynski and Harkin are senior researchers, writers and script editors for the BBC’s "QI", and two-fourths of the "No Such Thing As a Fish" podcast. Between them, they have authored 13 books with the "QI" Elves and toured shows across the world.

The synopsis for Everything to Play For said: "Delving into the world of sports and employing the QI Elves’ legendary curiosity, the book will present surprising facts and intriguing stories, including the psychology of football chants, comically large cricket bats, pole-vaulting priests and professional pillow-fighting.

"Designed to intrigue sports fanatics and casual watchers alike, the book will reveal what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of ‘bicycle face’; what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed and much more."

Hassan commented: "Anna’s and James’ book is as joyful and fact-filled as you’d expect from the QI Elves but the storytelling is utterly involving and entertaining too. You’ll be rooting for a Taiwanese tug of war team, be outraged by croquet skullduggery, admire the audacity of sporting history’s greatest cheats and discover the pure delight that is Puppy Bowl.

"It will whet even the sports refusenik’s curiosity because all human life is here: the rise of civilization, psychology, war, money, substance abuse, success, loss, redemption and even Bhutanese archery. It’ll be an absolutely winning Christmas read."

Harkin and Ptaszynski added: "At the end of the day, it’s a book of two halves, and we’re over the moon to have had the chance to write both of them. We always gave 110%, and we couldn’t have done it without the team at Faber, who really brought their A-game.

"But clichés aside, we’ve been excited for a long time to give the QI-treatment to the world of sport. Sure enough, our research uncovered some incredible characters and unbelievable stories. We hope sports fans and non-sports fans alike will love learning about them as much as we did, because you don’t need any prior sports knowledge to enjoy what is really a book about human behaviour in all its weirdness."