by Goldblatt, David, 1965-

The Olympics is the world's biggest sporting event - and it moves centre stage for London 2012. Yet the sports the world is familiar with - football, cricket, rugby, baseball, motor sports - are either missing or have a token presence. In their place are games that most of us have not a clue how to play or to watch. Which is where this witty, insightful book comes into play, offering the back story behind each Olympics sport and, by means of fiendishly clever diagrams and prose, explaining the rules and finer points. Once you've read David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton's accounts, you'll be on tenterhooks to see whether the Danish or the Koreans triumph at handball, just what the Italian fencers are up to, and if Greco-Roman wrestling really is like a game of chess.

• How to watch the Olympics: scores and laws, heroes and zeros - an instant initiation into every sport / Review / Independent on Sunday / Sunday / 29 Jul 2012

  Many of the Beeb brigade will have had to do some rapid mugging-up on the less mainstream – in Britain at any rate – sports; who knows how many of them have this witty, knowledgeable guide nestling among their research material, but it's not a bad place to begin. › Read full review

  Star Rating: 3 Stars