MAN Magazine - Winter 2022/23

HOW

WE MAKE MAN MAGAZINE

First, we cherry-pick the world’s best writers in the fields of sport, style, cars, music, comedy, health & fitness, travel, adventure, and more.

Then we let them write the stories they want to tell. The stories that matter.

And finally, we give it all away for free. Because when it’s this good, every man deserves to read it.

The result is the world’s greatest magazine for men who want the best of everything.

WE MAKE MAN MAGAZINE

This is the important bit. We know that being a man can be tough sometimes. Looking after your mental health, and helping your friends and family do the same, has never been more important. That’s why we work with Mind and CALM, two of the UK’s leading mental health charities. We want to help end the stigma around mental health and ensure that every man gets the support he needs.

SATISFYING, DELICIOUSLY MOREISH AND 0.0% ALCOHOL...

SATISFYING,

AND 0.0% ALCOHOL...

North Cornwall based Sharp’s Brewery launched Doom Bar Zero in 2019. In Doom Bar Zero, Sharp’s have produced a beer which shares the same moreish and balanced character as Doom Bar 4.3% and stays true to the amber ale style with a sweet roasted malt flavour and a subtle green hop aroma. With succulent dried fruit, lightly roasted malt and a subtle bitterness, it is as deliciously moreish as its alcoholic counterpart, yet drives a new flavour profile all of its own due to its alcohol-free nature.

North Cornwall based Sharp’s Brewery launched Doom Bar Zero in 2019. In Doom Bar Zero, Sharp’s have produced a beer which shares the same moreish and balanced character as Doom Bar 4.3% and stays true to the amber ale style with a sweet roasted malt flavour and a subtle green hop aroma. With succulent dried fruit, lightly roasted malt and a subtle bitterness, it is as deliciously moreish as its alcoholic counterpart, yet drives a new flavour profile all of its own due to its alcohol-free nature.

Christmas

Sharp’s Head Brewer, Aaron McClure, commented: “Doom Bar Zero took two years in the making with what we believe to be a truly unique, innovative brewing method, a definite challenge but with excellent results. The bitterness from the hops and sweetness of malt on the palate are well balanced and typical of the mother brand. We’re really proud of this beer, which we believe has an enhanced level of body and balance. This is one of very few true 0.0% beers out there.”

James Nicholls, Marketing Controller at Sharp’s, said: “We are proud that as a truly alcohol-free option, Doom Bar Zero can fit your lifestyle, when it suits you. Doom Bar at 4.3% is probably the most successful amber ale of recent times, growing from our first brew in 1996 to achieving the No.1 premium bottled ale in 2015*. We are continually expanding the range and bringing more choice to drinkers and Doom Bar Zero is a great example of that.”

Pairings from Ed Hughes, Sharp’s

Beer

Christmas Pairings

Sommelier

from

Doom Bar Zero is perfectly paired with foods with a little festive sweetness as it matches the sweetness you’ll find in the malt – think honey glazed roast ham or gammon. It would also make a brilliant alternative to port on a cheeseboard pairing beautifully with the sweetness of the chutney, the maltiness of the oatcakes and the subtle bitterness cutting through the fat in the cheese.

Doom Bar Zero is perfectly paired matches the sweetness you’ll fi gammon. It would also make a beautifully with the sweetness subtle bitterness cutting through

Welcome to the Winter 2022 issue of MAN.

Whatever your view on the merits of a winter World Cup in Qatar, from a purely sporting perspective, there are plenty of reasons to be excited. The England men’s team are back in action after reaching their first tournament final for 55 years at the Euros last summer, and we hear from midfield dynamo Declan Rice (p34) as they look to go one better than that shootout defeat to Italy. Wales, meanwhile, will be in World Cup action for the first time since 1958.

But the beautiful game is changing, and Gary Neville doesn’t like everything he’s seeing. The former Man Utd and England man shares his plan to save football on page 10.

Golf is another sport going through a testing phase at present, with the divisive, Saudi-funded LIV tour causing major fractions – so it’s good to focus on the undeniably positive impact the game can have. Soccer AM’s ‘Tubes’ explains how golf saved his life on page 20.

Beyond that, we speak to the incredible man running a marathon every day in 2022 (p64), identify 12 books that will change your life (p55), test drive a 300mph road car (p76), and look at some of the best story-driven games ever made (p89). We’ve also worked with our charity partners to tackle body image (p70, gambling issues (p28), and financial difficulties (p48).

Enjoy the issue, Rob

COVER CREDITS:

Cover Photographer: Ryan Pierse - UEFA

Executive Editor: Lee Gatland Art Director: Richard Hejsak

Managing Editor: Rob McGarr rob@sevenstarmedia.co.uk

manmagazineuk.co.uk

Sales Team: 01959 543 650 sales@sevenstarmedia.co.uk

Published by SEVEN STAR MEDIA LTD 184 Main Road, Biggin Hill, Westerham, Kent Tel: 01959 543659 sevenstarmedia.co.uk

Disclaimer: Man Magazine is published bi-annually (twice per annum) by Seven Star Media Ltd. No part of Man Magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retriev al system or transmitted to any form without permission. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of Seven Star Media Ltd, and are includ ed to provide advice only. No content is a substitute for professional medical advice. During printing, images may be subject to a 15% variation. © Copyright of content belongs to individual con tributors with the magazine copyright belonging to Seven Star Media Ltd. All rights reserved. Please either keep this magazine for future reference, pass it on for somebody else to read, or recycle it.

MAN MAGAZINE - WINTER 2022

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Take the time to invest in yourself.

HOW TO

SAVE FOOTBALL

Manchester United and England right-back turned pundit and club owner Gary Neville outlines his seven-point plan to rescue the beautiful game. The first priority? No more herding cats…

Gary Neville is a man on a mission. We see him on Sky Sports, see his Overlap videos, hear his podcasts, read about his business dealings. We can stay in one of the hotels he part owns, eat and drink in Cafe Football. We can watch his Salford City team play football in League Two. We can even watch a skyscraper he’s behind going up amid Manchester’s myriad other towers, or study at his University Academy 92 near Old Trafford cricket ground.

This man of the red left has firm political convictions and expresses them in his latest book called The People’s Game, with the journalist Rob Draper.

It’s his view from a front seat in football –300 cogent and truly impassioned pages with chapter titles such as ‘Power to the People’. ‘This is How it Feels to Be City’, ‘The Fairer Sex?’, ‘The Forlorn Fourteen’, ‘Fit and Proper’ and ‘Vanity Project’.

It starts on April 18, 2021, when Neville heard the news of the proposed European Super League. Anyone watching Sky Sports at the time would have seen his reaction, his opposition and vehemence to it. “The final straw,” declares Neville.

areas where he wants to see change in football. He’s been a match-going Manchester United fan, a player for the club from schoolboy level right the way through to first-team captain, an England international, an England coach, a manager at Valencia and an owner at Salford. He knows the media, and his family were deeply involved at Bury FC. His siblings were also heavily involved in top level women’s sport – sister Tracey played for and coached the England netball team, brother Phil managed the Lionesses. Few are better placed to understand all the issues involved in football.

IS

“Some people might think that my interest in the governance of football, and the anger I felt, began that day. But the reality is that it was just a catalyst.” The European Super League was dead within days – at least for now.

Here, Neville defines the seven

INDEPENDENT REGULATION

In April, the government announced initial plans for a new independent regulator for football, following a review chaired by former sports minister Tracey Crouch. Neville has long since publicly lobbied for such a move.

“The need for an independent regulator hasn’t just come from me,” he explains. “It’s supported by the EFL, the National League, fan groups and

most importantly by a fan-led review chaired by Tracey Crouch. The conclusion I come to is that English football is too important to towns and cities across the whole country. Football clubs are protected heritage assets and we can’t allow the governance of those clubs to be heavily influenced by American investment funds and nation states.

“We’ve seen what they’ve tried to do with Project Big Picture and the European Super League. They

line. There are other issues including fairer distribution and working as a collective, too.

“The biggest problem with the FA is that they have no power because they don’t control the funding. It’s an organisation that’s prehistoric in its makeup. It’s not modern at all, and while it is representative of all the different football councils across the country,

\\ THE FA IS SAT THERE WITH A BEGGING BOWL BELOW THE PREMIER LEAGUE ASKING FOR HELP

2A FAIRER MODEL FOR DISTRIBUTION

When the Class of 92 took over Salford City in 2014, the eighth-tier club averaged crowds of around 140. Aided by Singaporean businessman Peter Lim, Neville has since helped them climb four divisions to League Two. It’s given him a greater appreciation of life in the lower leagues, and he believes money should be distributed in a fairer way.

are attempting to alter the rule of football to the detriment of the English pyramid, and we need to make sure we protect our game. It’s like in 2007 when the banking industry was a great danger to everybody – they were regulated, which meant they couldn’t lend 110 per cent mortgages anymore. Football needs some simple rules that mean the quality and integrity of the Premier League is always maintained, but we have boundaries set that mean the top six and other potential owners who have aspirations to take the game further away from its roots are brought into

the FA struggles to get things done because the Premier League has the power. The FA is sat there with a begging bowl below the Premier League asking for help. The Premier League applies soft power to them all the time, and lands them with crap like the disciplinary stuff.

“A lot of very good people work at the FA, I’ve been exposed to them, and the work they have done with Team England, the Lionesses and St George’s Park is really impressive. But in terms of governance they’re a non-entity, because they don’t govern football, the Premier League do.”

EFL chairman Rick Parry has proposed banishing parachute payments – Neville feels that could be part of the solution. “We’ve created cliff edges,” says the exManchester United defender. “From Champions League clubs to those just below, then to the bottom 12-14 Premier League clubs. Then there’s another jump to the Championship, another between the Championship and League One, then from League Two to the National League. I’ve seen that close at hand, and they all need smoothing out.

“Rick Parry, to be fair to him, came out with a great line: ‘You don’t need a parachute unless there’s a massive drop’. There should be a gradual gradient that means there’s economic and sporting disappointment if you go down, but it shouldn’t be catastrophic or create desperation, greed and self-interest all through the game, which is what happens.

“I’m asking for a fairer distribution. That wouldn’t be to the detriment of the Premier League – it can still compete for the best players and trophies. We’re already spending billions more than Spain or Italy, irrespective of the £150m going down to the EFL. We won’t leave the Premier League short by taking another couple of hundred million out, putting it into the system and removing parachutes.”

3

A NEW LICENSING SYSTEM FOR OWNERS

Neville said little negative about the Glazers when he played for Manchester United, but he’s now an outspoken critic of the American family who took control in 2005, via a controversial leveraged takeover.

But it’s not just the Glazers who he has in his sights. His hometown club Bury were kicked out of the Football League in 2019 after spiralling into trouble, first under Stewart Day, then the unpopular Steve Dale. Earlier this year, Roman Abramovich sold Chelsea after he was sanctioned by the UK government, relating to his alleged links to Vladimir Putin.

“Because of what has

happened with Abramovich and Putin, it has alerted us all,” says Neville. “We need to sort out the fit-and-proper-person test. On one level you have Abramovich and Putin, on another Steve Dale and Stewart Day at Bury. This isn’t just about attacking nation states or American investment funds, which could be a big problem. We also have rogue owners at the bottom of the scale. We need a transparent and robust licence system.

“None of us know the answer as to why Saudi Arabia were accepted into Newcastle. Some think it was because of government pressure and arms deals, while others suggest it’s because Abu Dhabi are already in [at Manchester City]. We don’t know. How can we not know how one of our greatest football clubs, an institution like Newcastle United, was allowed to be taken over like that? I’m not saying it should not be allowed to happen, I’m saying we should know why it was allowed to happen.

“There should be clear criteria where everybody knows what you need to be a fit and proper owner of an English football club. It’s not just a business on the street like Harrods, John Lewis or Uber

where they invest Middle Eastern funds; football clubs should be treated differently, because they are too important to communities. If you own a football club, there should be a high level of expectation for those owners.

“I actually think American investment funds are a greater risk to English football than nation states. Nation states bring their own issues like workers’ rights, human rights and LGBT rights, but I don’t think they have the intention of damaging football in this country. American investment funds want to change the fabric. They want to create franchise football, to change the rules of the game, extract profits and dividends. They could drive prices up with regard to tickets.

“What happened at Bury is a big problem. I watched my mum and dad try to hold a great community club like Bury together for years. My hometown club disappeared in 2019, devastating the community I grew up in. The death of Bury seemed to be a wake-up call. It prompted the government to make their manifesto commitment for a fanled review of football.

“What happened at Chelsea

is a big problem. Abramovich was the first foreign owner of a major Premier League club. In 2003, we thought the game was big, but it was a parochial affair in terms of ownership. ‘Bigmoney owners’ meant someone like Jack Walker at Blackburn, who was worth £600m. Arsenal’s vice chairman David Dein summed it up well when he said: ‘Roman Abramovich has parked his tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes at us.’

“What’s happening at Manchester United is a big problem. Abramovich and Malcolm Glazer changed the cosiness of the domestic game. From opposite sides of the old Cold War, they’d seen the value in our game, even if they had very different motives. Despite the fans having been against the Glazers

for 10 years previously, it was only in around 2014 that it really sank in just how bad the situation was. Even so, I never called for their heads. The final straw was when they seemed willing to destroy English football with the Super League.

“What’s happening at Newcastle could be a big problem in the future that we don’t know about. My point is, we don’t know how you become accepted into English football as an owner. To me, football clubs should be treated like public bodies. In the time that you own it, you should be a guardian of that club for its fans. You should be independent and transparent. You should have to meet with and speak to fans. You should be open with them, and allow investment from them. All of these things need to happen - the only way we will get there is through regulation.”

MAKE FOOTBALL SUSTAINABLE

Bury’s demise gained the most attention, but they’re far from the only club who have suffered cash woes in recent years. Often, the cause is simply spending more than the club can actually afford, in a bid to get ahead on the pitch. The EFL imposes financial rules on clubs in an attempt to prevent those problems occurring, but they’re not uniform – regulations in League One and League Two differ significantly from those further up in the Championship, for example.

\\ RACISM HAS BECOME A COMPETITION AS TO WHO CAN COME UP WITH THE BEST SLOGAN

“Andy Holt from Accrington Stanley, who I spoke to for the book, strongly believes that clubs should only be able to spend the money they generate naturally and there should be a fairer distribution model from the top. My view is that if you do that, you’re preventing a Jack Walker at Blackburn, a Leicester, a Chelsea or Manchester City emerging to challenge the elite. Or a Salford City. You’re stopping the dream of getting to the top.

“We should allow investment into football clubs above and beyond the revenues that are generated, but owners should have to secure that through bank guarantees, cash on the table or personal guarantees to ensure we don’t get a Bury situation, chasing a dream without the money to back it up.

“The current rules need tidying up. There are different rules for each division, they’re not aligned, which demonstrates the lack of the collective in English football. There’s this phrase, ‘the football family’, but it’s no family. Each club operates itself and the league’s executives are trying to herd cats. One might come in or sign up, another will escape. There is no collective approach. We need to work as one to create a better English football, while maintaining a great Premier League.”

A FANS’ CHARTER

In Germany’s Bundesliga, regulations ensure that all clubs must give the majority of voting rights to their supporters, via the

50+1 rule. Neville understands that such a regulation is unrealistic in England, but feels fans should be given greater influence in decisionmaking.

“I’m not a 50+1 man, though I know many are,” he says. “English football has always had wealthy owners. More than 100 years ago, John Henry Davies saved Manchester United. We’re too far gone to get back to 51-49, but I think we could get to a point in the future where fans have a meaningful stake in a football club. That might be 25, 15 or 10 per cent. Fans have a seat on the board and there are strict rules from the regulator around what owners can and can’t do.

“That might mean a club can’t move out of a city. Or change the colours of the kit, which I did at Salford City. I look back now and think to myself, ‘Was that the right thing to do?’ We came into a level eight club, but should I have been allowed to do that as an owner of a football club?

“Fans are passionate about issues such as affordability, ticket allocations and prices. Fans are never going away; they’re always going to be there as the most important component of the game. Fans can have great power if they come together collectively. Owners should serve the club and attempt to create a successful team, but also work closely with supporters and get to a point where they almost become the joint owners, even though they’re not.”

“There are only two ways in which to create true sustainability in football,” says Neville. “One is that you’re only allowed to spend the money generated from honest revenue. The other way is that clubs spend more than the revenue they generate, and that is then subsidised by owner funding. My view would be that we need to ensure that when clubs spend more than their revenue, secure funding is in place to meet those obligations.

LEVELLING UP THE WOMEN’S GAME

The Lionesses captured the nation’s hearts by winning Euro 2022, but the women’s game has always had to battle for better treatment. Manchester United didn’t even have a proper women’s team until 2018. Neville has been around women’s sport all his life, and wants to see true equality.

“It’s not just women’s football,” he says. “My sister has long been

they lose funding. Women should not have to fight for funding and equal status in this country.

“The FA even stopped women’s football – it was attracting massive crowds in the 1920s. My mum was stopped from playing football in the boys’ team in the 1960s and 1970s. This was a period where sexism, misogyny, racism and other major societal issues were glossed over and swept under the carpet.

“I have two girls who play netball – I watch them relentlessly. I’ve been surrounded by women’s sport all my life – netball, hockey, rounders, women’s football. My family has embraced it. My brother was the England manager for three years, and my second sport is now netball. It used to be cricket.

“Only now are we getting to a point where women’s football is being screened live on television. The Euros should be a punch in the face for what it can bring to our game and our country.

There needs to be a root-andbranch review of women’s football, setting it up for the future, not continuing the lack of investment from the past.

“The women’s game should be elite in England and the team currently is elite, but women’s football should be amplified and supported by the men’s game. It should be given equal standing and status.”

FOOTBALL AND SOCIETY UNITED

Sadly, racist incidents have become more prevalent in football over recent years, and in society as a whole. Every occurrence is different, but sometimes – like Edinson Cavani’s three-match ban for using the word ‘negrito’ on social media in December 2020, when the Uruguayan insisted he had no racist intent – Neville believes there’s a need for better education.

“Racism has since become a competition between the different football organisations as to who can come up with the best slogan,” laments Neviile. “The reality is that we need action, education, stronger consequences, rehabilitation and reintroduction. We need a proper system to ensure that everybody works together as one.

“Everybody wants to deal with racism and inequalities in football, and to do it well. But even on that, the differing leagues and organisations can’t come together and work as one. I find that crazy.

“Why can’t the Premier League, the EFL, the League Managers’ Association and the PFA work with a body like Kick It Out, who have been around a long time, and co-ordinate their efforts into one programme, one slogan, one campaign? Then think about how we measure any success.

“Football can create huge change. All we need to do is come together and co-ordinate what we do, and

we’d be far better for it. We have one campaign that says, ‘No room for racism’, one that says, ‘Show racism the red card’, another that says ‘Kick it out’ and yet another that says ‘Fairer game for all’. All of those are great, but wouldn’t it be even greater if we came together and brought the funding into one pot?

“Whenever there’s another racism offence, people say we need more education, so why can’t every stakeholder have that education? How can it be that Edinson Cavani comes over without an induction into English football, and what certain words and phrases mean [in English]? We should educate our players, our media, our supporters and our pundits. There’s none of that at the moment, but the game has enough money to do it.”

THE FUTURE

At the time of writing, no timeline had been announced by the government for the introduction of the first point in Neville’s action plan, an independent regulator. He’s clear, though, about how he would like the landscape to look by 2032.

“If you could show me a better football 10 years from now, it would be that a regulator has been introduced, and the majority of the recommendations have been implemented,” he concludes. “The FA has been

modernised and restructured, there’s a fairer distribution model, we have sustainability in play, and we have an equality and diversity programme that’s revered around the world.

“We should have a far more equal women’s game, and a fit-and-proper-owners test where everybody knows what the rules are. Then we move the regulation of football back into the hands of an empowered, restricted and modern FA. For me, that would represent absolute perfection.”

It won’t be easy, and there have been reports that the independent regulator idea may be scrapped, but Neville’s determination to effect change is beyond doubt. He’s a man on a mission, with a track record of getting things done. No matter the resistance, expect him to carry on campaigning for some time yet.

Gary’s book, ‘The People’s Game’, is out now

Tubes

If you spent your Saturday mornings watching Soccer AM on Sky Sports in the early-to-mid noughties, you’ll remember Tubes (real name Peter Dale, right) for his hilariously awkward interviews every week. His ‘one question and one question only’ segment ran for seven years and gave him cult-status on the longrunning show, which he’s been a part of for nearly two decades.

But unless you are part of the TikTok generation, you may not be familiar with his brother, Ange (real name Andrew Dale, left), and their hugely popular Tubes & Ange Golf Life YouTube series, which has brought their unique sense of humour and comedy to the golf course.

Soccer AM star

reveals how taking up golf – alongside brother Ange –helped save his sanity and his life…

Since launching in 2019, the channel has featured guests such as England international footballers John Terry and Peter Crouch, as well as world champion boxer Tony Bellew and actor Stephen Graham. The content has proven so popular that it has enjoyed over 24 million views on YouTube alone. Even England Golf are directing people to the channel.

“It’s funny because it started out with Pete doing what he does best: interviewing footballers on a golf course,” explains Ange. “We then started experimenting with a few silly games like a bucket challenge and quickly realised people wanted to see some longer form, nine-hole and fourhole matches. It’s now evolved into Pete and I doing vlogs and then a big star joining us for a challenge. We’re actually astonished by how much it’s grown. I guess it just shows how much more enjoyable it is listening to an interview on the golf course.”

They’ve just finished filming the first of two weekly episodes, which gives the brothers a good excuse for arriving late to our Zoom call. Naturally they blame each other and so begins the kind of good-natured ribbing (or ‘banter’ as they like to call it), which underpins many of their videos. They can’t resist reeling of a few of their favourite anecdotes either – like the time Robbie Williams set them a ridiculous putting challenge in a car park during lockdown, or when Tubes

KNEW

needed 233 attempts to make a holein-one in his mum’s back garden .

“It’s been brilliant, such great fun,” says Tubes, who still works for Soccer AM full time. “We’ve had Joe Calzaghe on, Jason Fox from SAS: Who Dares Wins, Aaron Ramsdale, super Joe Cole, Jimmy Bullard, Paul Merson, Neil Ruddock, Jack Wilshere, Glenn Hoddle, even Mike bloody Dean! The list goes on and on. We were chuffed to get Mason Mount and Declan Rice, too.

“But we’re trying to get out to different sports people as well, not just footballers,” continues Ange. “Beef (Andrew Johnston) has been on, so has Matt Fitzpatrick and James Morrison. Shane Lowry and Olivia Cowan are coming on, Poults has been flirting with the idea. Hopefully England Golf can help us, too.”

With such an extensive contacts book, it is hard to imagine Tubes ever being starstruck. He always seems remarkably at ease in front of the camera, yet there is a vulnerability which only becomes apparent once the conversation turns to golf.

“I only got into golf when I realised I had a massive issue with alcohol,” he confesses suddenly. “About five and a half years ago I made the decision to stop drinking and upsetting everyone around me. I then realised I had so

\\ THE NEXT THING I

I WAS HAVING A CUP OF COFFEE IN THE WARD WITH A STENT IN MY CHEST, THINKING, “I NEARLY DIED”

many more hours in the day so I was like, ‘What can I do which doesn’t involve going down the pub?’ Ange has always been into golf, so it seemed like a good thing to bond over. I used to get bored of golf, but now I can play all day, every day. I absolutely love it. So basically, I swapped the alcohol for golf clubs… ”

A NEW ADDICTION

Tubes now wears his sobriety as a badge of honour. He admits that it almost became a running joke on Soccer AM that he would go out drinking every weekend. People would send in pictures of themselves with a cardboard cut-out of Tubes on a night out and there was even a campaign calling for landlords across the country to ban him from their establishments for his own good. “I planned my life around alcohol,” he says with regret. “It got to the point where I was buying for the next morning.”

Asked by a fan how much his addiction affected his mental health, Tubes once revealed

that he often contemplated suicide and would down bottles of vodka like he was “drinking water”. On one occasion he even tried to run in front of a moving car. The tremble in his voice suggests he is still haunted by his past, though he admits he probably wouldn’t be here today had he not swapped the nights out for a morning in the gym or an afternoon on the golf course.

On January 28, 2018, Tubes underwent emergency openheart surgery to repair a hole in his heart after suffering an “unexpected and massive heart attack”. It was only because he had given up smoking and drinking two years before that he was given a fighting chance of survival.

“I can still remember everything about it,” he admits. “I went home after playing football – really badly, by the way – in the morning. I felt like I had a massive hangover. I was almost trying to burp out a heart attack in the kitchen. It was like I had indigestion.

FOUR PLAYERS WHO FACED MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS HEAD ON AND CAME OUT THE OTHER SIDE

MATTHEW WOLFF

“Mental illness or not being happy, that’s an injury, and people don’t look at it as that. People look at it as, Oh, you’re not happy, or you’re a little screwed up in the head or you’re just playing bad. It’s like, get over it. But it’s more than that. If you don’t feel a hundred percent right, no matter if it’s mental or physical, it is an injury, and you should be able to rehab and take your time in order to get to a place where you need to be. I feel like I had that time.”

BUBBA WATSON

“There’s not a miracle drug that makes it go away. I have anxieties. I have doubts. I have pride issues. I have ego issues. I’ve got them all. I’ve got every issue you can think of and I’m still dealing with it, and hopefully I get better with it. I think me talking about it helps me. The more I hold it in, the worse it eats at me.”

CHRISTINA KIM

“You only get one shot at life. I have been through a lot in my life and have been on the other end of it where I’ve wallowed in my own misery and ultimately got in my own way. Instead of thinking of a mishit shot, I’m now just allowing myself to have a new opportunity to have a sick up and down. I’m upbeat because I have been through a lot of adversity in my life in the past. I couldn’t expect anyone else to have this sort of delusional positive mindset if they have never delved into those deep trenches of human emotion.”

ANDREW ‘BEEF’ JOHNSTON

“Being a ‘character’ has its downsides. I’ve been called a joke and things like that and I think that kind of had a little bit of an effect on me. I almost tried to fit in more. It made me miserable, made my golf miserable and I put more pressure on myself to do well. I had to go away and relearn that people like me because of me and not because of my golf. I think it’s vital really for anyone in sport and any kids growing up to just be themselves and have fun.”

Need I started feeling worse and worse and as I was walking down the stairs, that’s when my entire left side went numb.”

While lying stricken on the ground in his front room, Tubes was luckily able to text his mum who alerted Ange and called the paramedics.

“It’s not something you can really prepare for,” admits Ange. “When we got there, he looked as white as a sheet. His eyes were open but it was like there was nothing there. He was looking through us. It was horrible and something I never want to go through again.”

“It’s a good job we had Lewis Hamilton driving the ambulance,” jokes Tubes. She was amazing, so quick. The other paramedic just kept telling these really sh*t jokes. He was like a really bad Jasper Carrot. He told my mum afterwards that he was trying to annoy me to keep me awake.

“He did his job and I got taken straight to the operating theatre. The next thing I knew I was having a cup of coffee in the ward with a stent in my chest, thinking, ‘I nearly died’. I was so lucky because they told me I had minutes to live.”

A SECOND CHANCE

Since the ordeal, both brothers have been raising funds for charities promoting heart health awareness – and have even joined the Today’s Golfer campaign to help get as many defibrillators in golf clubs as possible across the UK. Tubes is now urging others to get checked out to help reduce dozens of preventable heartrelated deaths each day.

“You can’t predict, but you can prevent it. Even though my dad and his dad both suffered heart attacks, never once did I think I would have one at the age of 36. I was probably the fittest I had ever been. I was playing golf, going to the gym every day, and I had lost loads of weight. The doctors actually said if I had still been drinking like I did back in the day, I would have died on the spot.”

Bizarrely, one thing he can’t do now is scuba-diving – “I wouldn’t want to anyway,” he laughs – but he has been able to obtain his first-ever handicap after joining iGolf. Most of his and Ange’s rounds are now documented in the form of ‘grudge matches’ on their YouTube channel, which has amassed

more than 158,000 subscribers. Late last year they caught the attention of England Golf, who approached them to produce seven fun-packed episodes to help get youngsters into golf.

“It sounds a bit lame, but what we do is all about having fun, enjoying life on the golf course, and inspiring people to get out there,” says Ange. “I’ve got a kid now so golf is really my only outlet. It helps me mentally and there’s no better feeling than playing golf with people you like and love is there? That’s what we try to portray.”

“We do like to have a laugh, but we also cover some really important points, such as mental health,” adds Tubes. “One minute Lee Hendrie was talking about his own mental health problems; five minutes later he was doing an impression of one of his ex-managers. It’s real life. If we hit a sh*t shot, we don’t take it out. If we hit a great shot, we celebrate it. We want to make it relatable, so people feel like they’re with us on the golf course. We’re not precious about what happens. We’ll try anything and that’s probably why it works. You never know what we’re going to do or come up with next!”

HOW TO HELP A FRIEND EXPERIENCING HARM FROM GAMBLING

UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE GOING THROUGH

However you’re feeling, it’s important to not blame yourself or the other person. Gambling is an addictive behaviour, and gambling disorder is a recognised medical issue that can develop because of a number of reasons. Quite often, a person who is struggling with their gambling may feel like they have little or no control. Learn about what your friend might be going through so you know the best way to help.

MAKE SURE YOU’RE LOOKING OUT FOR YOU TOO

If you’re worried about a friend’s gambling, you might be feeling angry, hurt or betrayed if they’ve lied to you or tried to hide their gambling from you. It can be difficult dealing with these emotions, but it is completely normal, so try not to give yourself a hard time about it.

There are many ways you can help a friend who may be experiencing harm from gambling, but remember, it’s not your job to change their behaviour. There are many support services available to help someone who experiences gambling harm, and if you’re struggling, there’s help and support for you too.

HOW TO TALK TO A FRIEND ABOUT THEIR GAMBLING

It can be difficult to know where to start, especially if your friend doesn’t recognise that their gambling may be causing harm.

Want to help a friend with their gambling but not sure what to do? The practical advice and support services from BeGambleAware are a great place to start.

Often people try to convince themselves that they have their gambling under control when they don’t.

\\ BUT REMEMBER, IT’S NOT YOUR JOB TO CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOUR //

When speaking to your friend about their gambling, it’s important to let them know that the reason you’re concerned is because you care about them. If they feel they’re understood, they are more likely to talk openly and honestly, which will allow you to develop and negotiate a plan with them. Although it may feel difficult to do so, try to be calm and positive with your communication and avoid saying things that might come across critical or cause confrontation.

Explaining how you feel might help to lessen their defences and keep the conversation open. You could try using ‘I’ instead of ‘you’ to avoid sounding accusatory. We’ve written

a few examples to help you start the conversation, but remember to be yourself and speak to your friend as you usually would so your conversation sounds natural and genuine.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

“I’ve noticed you’ve been gambling/betting a lot recently and it’s starting to make me worry.”

“You’re one of my closest friends, which is why I’m saying this. I’m a bit concerned because I’ve seen you do things that are really risky.”

“You’re my best mate. I don’t want you to feel like you need to hide anything from me. Talk to me about what’s going on.”

“I can see you’re not happy at the moment and that upsets me. I want to help you with this.”

“I know you’ve been gambling a lot recently. I don’t judge you, but I’m a little worried. How are you feeling about it?”

Once you’ve started the conversation, be patient and listen carefully to what they say without being judgemental. Try not to interrupt when they’re talking, as this might stop them from wanting to talk, or make them defensive. It’s important to be calm and caring, but be careful not to allow them to make excuses for their gambling. If your friend seems comfortable with telling you that they’re struggling with gambling, try suggesting that they seek professional support.

Key steps to take financially

If your friend is having financial difficulties because of gambling, encourage them to get professional financial support.

You could also encourage them to speak to their bank, as there may be a number of ways they can help as well. They may find it useful to use gambling blocking tools too.

It’s a good idea to make sure you’re protecting your own finances as well, by keeping your passwords private and debit cards safe.

Avoid rewarding gambling behaviour

Giving or lending money to a friend to pay off their gambling debt might seem like a sensible solution, but it’s likely to make their situation and harm from gambling worse.. It also puts your own finances at risk. It’s not recommended, but if you do decide to lend them money, make sure you have financial controls in place to ensure the money can’t be spent on gambling.

Reward positive behaviour

A system that rewards positive behaviour could be really helpful. For example, you might consider not lending your friend money if they continue to gamble, however, if they cut back or stop gambling you could offer to conditionally help them pay off a bill.

If they’re doing well, make sure you tell them so that they can recognise the positive impact of their behaviour too. For example, you could say to them:

“I’m really proud of you for sticking at this. I know it’s been hard but it’s going to be worth it.”

\\ IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE PROTECTING YOUR OWN FINANCES AS WELL //

Lasting change can take time

Keep in mind that when a person has paid off all their debts, this can be a time when they are vulnerable to relapse. For example, some people who have experienced gambling harm may begin convincing themselves that once the debts are paid off, a small gamble may be acceptable. If this happens, try not to feel disheartened. A lapse or slip up can be a good way of finding out how to adjust your plan to help them stay on track.

Get help

Speak to a National Gambling Helpline adviser one-toone for confidential advice, information and emotional support. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call – 0808 8020 133

Online web chat – gamcare.org.uk/getsupport/talk-to-us-now/ BeGambleAware.org

“I’ve noticed things seem so much better with your partner/family since you’ve stopped gambling.”

“You’ve made so much progress over the past few months. It makes me really happy to see you happier too.”

“I was really worried about you last year. You’re doing amazing. I know it hasn’t been easy.”

Declan Rice outstretched his arms and embraced the abuse. He may have been in front of Dinamo Zagreb’s fearsome Bad Blue Boys ultras, but the young midfielder wouldn’t be cowed during his big moment.

Besides, he’d almost made a sport of continental crowdbaiting by now. A fortnight earlier, the 22-year-old (now 23) had netted as England won 4-0 in Hungary, and delivered the game’s defining image by cheekily pretending to swig from a plastic cup thrown at Raheem Sterling by the baying home fans.

In Croatia, Rice had walked into another of Europe’s most intimidating venues – and events were following a similar pattern. He came, he scored, he celebrated in front of ultras without the slightest hint of fear.

ENGLAND’S FUTURE CAPTAIN

Declan Rice helped drive his country to a major tournament final for the first time since 1966 and West Ham to their furthest point in Europe for 40 years. Ask the midfield dynamo himself, though, and that’s merely the beginning…

This time, the confident anchorman had dashed from his own half to score a brilliant solo goal for West Ham, on his first ever appearance in European club competition.

Dinamo Zagreb humiliated Tottenham at the Maksimir the previous season, but Rice’s goal ensured that the Hammers triumphed 2-0 – and he was determined to enjoy the moment, right in front of the home supporters.

“It had to be done,” chuckles Rice. “I was buzzing. It was the first Europa League game, we won, and I was captain – it was a special night. They were giving a bit of stick to my teammate Nikola Vlasic [formerly of Hajduk Split], so I thought I’d stand up to them myself and put my arms out. I don’t think they were too happy!

“Every time I step on the pitch, those types of moments are so enjoyable. The one in Hungary made a great photo. Luckily there was nothing in that cup – it stank! There was nothing meant by it. It was lighthearted.”

That Rice is so jovial in such environments is instructive of the confidence that flows through his veins. While some of his England team-mates have suffered at club level since playing pivotal roles in the Three Lions’ run to a first European Championship final, Rice’s star is in the ascendant.

“I go onto a pitch now and always think I’m going to play well,” he explains. “I’ve had big experiences. They’ve turned me into a man.”

Rice’s mentality hasn’t always been so bulletproof – a couple of years ago, the young midfielder revealed how he’d pressed the panic

\\ I GO ONTO THE PITCH NOW AND ALWAYS THINK I’M GOING TO PLAY WELL //

button after being subbed at halftime in Manuel Pellegrini’s first game as West Ham boss in 2018, asking the Chilean to go out on loan in the Championship.

Then a teenager, he’d made his first-team breakthrough during the previous campaign, playing regularly in a back three during David Moyes’ brief first stint at the helm. He still harboured some doubts that he could cope with the top flight, though, until Pellegrini assuaged them by restoring Rice to the team. He flourished. When Moyes returned as boss in December 2019, he knew the Scot would help him continue his rapid progress.

“I’d been playing really well under Manuel Pellegrini, I’d had a really solid season, there was a lot of talk

around me, and I’d played a few England games,” he continues. “Then I remember to this day, David Moyes got appointed on our day off. We were in the gym the next morning, he walked down and went round everyone – when he came over to me he said, ‘Bloody hell, you’ve improved!’ and started laughing. I was like, ‘Yeah, I know!’ I really liked him from when we worked together before. He’s a top man – we’re all really lucky to play under him.”

Under the returning Moyes, Rice helped steer West Ham out of relegation trouble in 2019-20. They sat an improved 10th in the Premier League table by the time 2021 began, but even the midfielder himself didn’t expect what followed, with West Ham climbing into the top

four, above Chelsea and Liverpool. “We haven’t looked back since,” says Rice.

A Champions League place would eventually prove too big an ask. Rice missed six matches late in the campaign with a knee injury and, probably no coincidence, West Ham lost three of them. But the returning midfielder netted in a 3-0 victory over Southampton on the final day of the 2020-21 season to seal a Europa Conference League spot and a sixth-placed finish – the Irons’ highest league position since 1999.

Rice had also begun to regularly skipper the side, with club captain and mentor Mark Noble usually on the bench because of his advancing years. “I really enjoy being the captain,” says Rice. “I’m chilled about

it, but I do like the responsibility and having the armband on. You feel a great sense of pride to captain West Ham, particularly when we’ve got 60,000 at our stadium again now. It’s just really special, and there was no one better than Nobes to help me out with it.

“Qualifying for Europe was massive for the club. There have been so many ups at West Ham –there used to be more downs than ups, relegation battles... it was stressful coming into training. Now it’s completely turned around. It’s been so good; the way everyone is around the place, the manager. It’s a great laugh on the training field, but when it’s time to be serious and work, we work. You can see that on the pitch – we work for each other. Every time we go onto the field, we give everyone a game.”

Rice’s form ensured he was a nailed-on starter for England at the Euros. Where once it was Jordan Henderson who led Gareth Southgate’s midfield, now the West Ham man was entrusted to take on that role. Henderson had returned to fitness by the time of the tournament, but Southgate saw no reason to split up the sturdy partnership between Rice and Kalvin Phillips.

Asked for his highlight of the tournament, Rice doesn’t need long to think. “Oh, the Germany game,” he responds instantly, his mind flashing back to that famous Wembley triumph. The match was originally due to be played in Dublin, which might have been more uncomfortable for the former Republic of Ireland international.

“That game was really special,” he recalls. “There were so many thoughts going through my mind, because there was a lot of talk in the group stage about whether we were playing well enough. We weren’t scoring enough, we were winning 1-0, we’d only scored two goals, we were playing Germany in the next game, and it was the knockout stages. Imagine that, we go out to Germany at home after scoring two goals on home soil in a European Championship? You’re thinking, ‘Oh no...’

\\ AFTER THAT SEMI-FINAL, THE WHOLE STADIUM SINGING SWEET CAROLINE AND MY FAMILY BEING THERE – THEY’RE MEMORIES THAT WILL REMAIN FOREVER

“But we turned it on that day. Everyone was solid and it was the whole vibe – we had loads of fans in the stadium, more than were allowed in for the group stage. It was just so loud for the national anthem, then for Sweet Caroline after the game as well. We were all stood there with the confidence to go the whole way.”

It looked like it really could happen, too, after Harry Kane’s penalty – on the rebound – gave England victory over Denmark and sent the Three Lions into their first major final since 1966. It’s a night that Rice will never forget, for all sorts of reasons.

“After that semi-final, the whole stadium singing Sweet Caroline and my family being there – they’re memories that will remain forever,” he says, having started alongside his childhood friend Mason Mount that night. “I’ve got some good photos on my phone of me and Mason, arms around each other, walking around, taking it all in. You can never expect to play with your mate at a major tournament. It was special.

“Then when we were walking around the pitch, I saw my mum doing a baby sign,” remembers Rice, imitating Bebeto’s famous babyrocking celebration. “I thought, ‘What?’, but I couldn’t see my brother Jordan.

“His missus was well overdue but he was still coming to the matches. He was in the stadium for the Denmark game with my mum, my missus, another brother, everyone. Then in the second half, around the 60th minute, his missus called saying she was going in to have the baby. My mum was shouting at him saying, ‘You’ve got to go!’, and he was like, ‘I can’t!’ My mum said he had to. Literally as Harry Kane scored, the baby was born. I called him afterwards and he was buzzing.”

For the final with Italy, Southgate restored the back five he’d deployed against Germany in the last 16. Rice believes that the system helped him to produce his two greatest performances of the tournament.

“Probably Germany and the final were my best games,” he says. “Against Germany, I got a yellow card inside the first 10 minutes and had

to really watch myself, because I was wanting to steam into tackles and get right involved – but it’s a different ball game then. I was still making loads of tackles and luckily I didn’t get another yellow, but we did really well on the ball against Germany.

“Then in the final, I was so fired up. We played a back five and I really like to play in that system. I’ll play as the one in front and I can roam, move upfield and do whatever I want. When I was on the ball, I just felt unstoppable at times in that game. I felt so confident running with it, making passes and driving through people.”

Just like in 1966, West Ham had produced arguably England’s best performer in the final – Rice did much to keep Italy at bay for long periods, in a game destined to boil down to possession and the midfield battle. With 16 minutes to go, though, not long after Leo Bonucci’s scrambled equaliser, Southgate opted to introduce Henderson for the young Hammers midfielder.

“I’d played every game and probably in the manager’s mind, he wanted some fresh legs,” reflects Rice. “When you’re bringing on someone like Hendo with the experience he’s got, it’s a decision you don’t mind. You never want to go off in a final, especially when you know you’re playing well yourself, but you’ve got to respect the decision.”

Understandably, watching the penalty shootout unfold was a torturous moment, as it was for every member of the Three Lions setup.

//

\\ YOU NEVER WANT TO GO OFF IN A FINAL, BUT YOU’VE GOT TO RESPECT THE DECISION //

Rice confirms that he would have volunteered to take a penalty if he’d still been on the field, but had full faith in the quintet who did step up – Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.

“I remember standing on the sidelines and watching those penalties – we’d scored the first two, solid pens, I saw Rashy stepping up and thought, ‘It’s in our hands here’,” recalls Rice. “In training, he’s one of the best penalty takers I’ve ever seen. I’m not just saying it – he doesn’t miss.

“He missed there, but that’s football. I still believed in Sanch and Saks to score, but they were great saves from [Gigio] Donnarumma. That feeling of seeing all the Italian players running off, then lifting the trophy in front of us – honestly it was horrible, and one that I don’t want to feel again.

“Of course the tournament was a success – we got to England’s first final since 1966. It’s just always, ‘What if? What if we’d won? What if we’d done something different?’ But I’m sure in Qatar we’ll be better people for the experience we had in the summer, and we can win the World Cup, hopefully.”

Returning to West Ham after Euro 2020, Rice was well aware many pundits were writing off the Hammers’ chances of repeating last

season’s success. Some suggested that the exertions of a European campaign would be too much –the Londoners had made it past the qualifying rounds for the first time since 2006 and were playing in the group stage of a continental competition for the first time. Surely, the Europa League’s Thursday-Sunday drudge would have an effect?

“There were question marks around us,” acknowledges Rice. “People write stuff and say stuff on the radio. ‘Can West Ham do it? Have they got the squad? Can they play every Thursday and Sunday?’ I think so far, we’ve proven that we can. We’re just sticking to our gameplan – we know what works for us and we watch the opposition very closely. We’re heading in the right direction, 100 per cent.”

As, undoubtedly, is Rice himself, who’s been hailed as one of the finest players in the Premier League. There are few better in world football in his position now, full stop – and he’s still only 23.

“At such a young age, you never think you’d get the chance to play in such big matches. Big opportunities have come around and I’ve stepped up, really learned and known where I had to improve. I’m still improving but I’ve been

thoroughly enjoying it – it’s been really positive.

“I think it’s just my all-round confidence on a football pitch now – once those first couple of touches have happened, you feel like you’re going to fly straight through the game. My driving with the ball has probably improved as well. I spoke about it last year and feel like I’ve really done that well. “On the ball I’ve been more progressive: mixing up my game, playing longer passes and much more progressive shorter passes. I’m trying to add a little bit of everything.”

The youngster admits that he had a bit of luck with his goal for England in Hungary – a 25-yard strike that went straight through goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi – but there was no such fortune required in Zagreb. That was the perfect example of his much-improved ability to drive forward with the ball, having intercepted possession inside his own half with a trademark bit of anticipation.

“When the right-back looked down, I knew he was going to pass it inside – it was the only pass he had,” says Rice. “I ran forward, anticipated the pass, then just kept going the closer I got to goal. The shot went bang through the keeper’s legs. I was buzzing to score our second in that game, and for our fans to witness the first win in Europe. It’s definitely up there with my favourite goals. I’ll probably always say my favourite was my first ever for West Ham [against Arsenal, January 2019], which was special. But recently, my favourite has been that one in Zagreb.”

Rice netted again in the next game against Rapid Vienna, setting the Hammers on their way to another 2-0 victory. West Ham have made a habit of bungling opportunities in Europe in recent times – they went out in the UEFA Cup’s first round in 2006, then lost to Romanian minnows Astra Giurgiu in both 2015 and 2016. This time, though, there was no such trouble: Moyes’ men took control

of their group early on to reach the knockouts – the first time they will have played European football beyond Christmas since 1981.

That came in the Cup Winners’ Cup, after West Ham’s triumph in the FA Cup final – as a second-tier side, no less – the previous year. For a player who is fast on his way to being a club legend, breaking the Irons’ 41-year trophy drought is now something he regards as a realistic aim. After pretending to swig from a plastic cup in Hungary, he wants a real one to drink from.

“With the squad we’ve got and how well we’ve been doing, it would only be right if we said we want to push ourselves for some sort of trophy,” says Rice. “Why not us? We need to keep being positive and keep playing well, but we’re confident that we can push for those things now. As players we all want to win stuff, and the fans haven’t seen us win something for ages.”

“For me, I just need to keep on the same path I’m going down at the moment. I’ll keep my head down, keep working, keep improving and see where it takes me.”

For a player without an ounce of discernible ego, he’ll continue to take it all in his stride. Rice has gone from boy to man, hot prospect

to the real deal, and shown his credentials as a future England captain.

Nothing scares Declan Rice any more. Not even a horde of angry ultras…

& YOUR

With money worries affecting more and more of us at the moment, it’s important to understand the effect financial stress can have on your mental health. Mental health charity Mind (mind.org.uk) can help.

HOW MONEY PROBLEMS CAN AFFECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

Worrying about money can make your mental health worse, while poor mental health can make earning and managing money harder. It can start to feel like a vicious cycle. Here are some of the common problems money worries can create:

Certain situations might trigger feelings of anxiety and panic, like opening envelopes or attending a benefits assessment.

Worrying about money can lead to sleep problems, which can affect your mental health.

You might not be able to afford the things you need to stay well. This could include housing, food, water, heating, or treatments like medication and therapy.

Money problems can affect your social life and relationships. You might feel lonely or isolated, or like you can’t afford to do the things you want to do.

FEELINGS ASSOCIATED WITH MONEY

Thinking about money can be emotional. These are some common feelings you might have:

You might feel guilty for spending money, even if you know you can afford it. Or, you might feel guilty for seeking support, even if you know you need it.

You might be afraid of looking at your bank balance or speaking to the bank.

You might feel ashamed for needing support. It’s important to remember that everyone has the right to feel well, and the right to essentials like food and housing. Getting financial support is a good way of making sure you have the things you need.

You might feel stressed, for example if you’re under a lot of pressure to support yourself and others. Trying to navigate the benefits system may feel stressful.

You might feel tired or worn down, especially if you’ve been struggling with money problems for a long time.

If you’ve experienced financial abuse in the past, this might affect how you feel about money now.

Getting to know the feelings and emotions you have around money might help you to spot patterns in your behaviour and feel more in control.

GET TO KNOW YOUR MONEY AND MOOD PATTERNS

You might find it helpful to take some time to think about how you feel about money and why. For example, if you’ve struggled with money in the past or didn’t have much money growing up, this might affect the way you feel about money now. You could try answering these questions:

Are there certain times when you’re more likely to spend money?

Are there certain times when you’re more likely to save money?

How does it feel when you spend money?

Do you feel differently when you’re spending and saving?

What are the emotions and feelings you think of, when you think about money?

Which aspects of dealing with money make your mental health worse? For example, it could be things like attending appointments, opening envelopes, confrontation, or being misunderstood.

\\ CREATE A BUDGET AND MAKE A LIST OF ALL THE ESSENTIAL THINGS YOU NEED TO SPEND MONEY ON EACH MONTH //

It might help to keep a diary of your spending and your mood, to record what you spend and why. You could record how you were feeling before and afterwards, too.

Once you’ve done this, you might start to feel like you understand your habits and patterns around money a bit more. Knowing these could help you plan ahead for difficult times.

Budget and savings calculators can help keep your spending on track, or help you save for the future. Visit moneyhelper.org.uk/en/toolsand-calculators to use their free tools.

HOW TO PREVENT OVERSPENDING

Sometimes people spend more than they can afford because it provides a temporary high, but the long-term implications make matters worse. Here are some ways to control your spending:

Tell someone you trust about the warning signs you might be overspending, or signs you’re struggling with your mental health.

Give your cards to someone you trust or put them somewhere difficult to access.

Don’t save your card details into websites.

Delete apps where you usually overspend, or apps which encourage you to spend.

If you get tempted by adverts on social media, limit how much time you spend on it.

Find ways to delay purchasing. You could tell yourself, “I will buy this tomorrow if I still feel like it then”. You could take photographs of the things you want or write them down in a wish list.

Distract yourself with something else that makes you feel good.

Consider telling your bank that you have a mental health problem. They may be able to add a note to your file to look out for unusual spending. There is information on how to do this at mind.org.uk/

Some people find it helpful to avoid credit cards completely.

HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR FINANCES

These are some tips you could try to help organise your money:

Make sure you’re claiming any extra benefits or support you’re entitled to. Put all your important documents in one place so you can find them easily. This could include letters, bank statements, payslips, bills, and receipts.

Check your bank balance at a regular, set time so you know what you’re spending your money on and how much you have left.

Build money tasks into your daily or weekly routine. You could allocate a set amount of regular time to think about any tasks you need to do around money, for example paying bills. You could plan a relaxing activity for after you’ve finished.

Make a plan for ways to distract yourself, if you notice changes in your mood that might affect your spending.

If possible, use cash instead of cards. Take out only the amount of money you can afford to spend, for example for a weekly shop.

Create a budget and make a list of all the essential things you need to spend money on every month. This could be things like rent or mortgage payments, energy bills, phone bills and food shops.

Manage your debts if you can afford to. You could set up a standing order to pay off your debts each month.

If you’re struggling to pay off your debts, get debt advice. StepChange.org provides free advice about money problems, debt and budgeting.

If you’re struggling to pay off your debts, you could ask for a break from paying interest on your debts. This is possible under a Government scheme called breathing space: nationaldebtline.org/factsheet-library/breathingspace-ew/

Use bank accounts which allow you to put money aside in separate pots. This can stop you spending the money you need for rent or bills on other things.

Set up direct debits for your bills and other regular payments so they don’t pile up.

IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD

THE ESSENTIALS

Remember, everyone has the right to essentials like food and housing. If you need support, the following things can help:

Claim benefits to help with your living costs.

Use a local foodbank.

Community Fridges offer free food and most of the time you don’t need a foodbank voucher to use them.

Find out if you should be getting social care.

Speak to your energy supplier. Most energy suppliers have schemes for people who are struggling to pay their bills. Ofgem also has information about getting help if you can’t afford your energy bills.

Some councils have a local assistance scheme. You can apply to this scheme if you’re on a low income and need help with an emergency cost you can’t afford.

Moneyhelper.org.uk helps you prioritise your bills and payments. You pick the bills or payments you’re struggling with, and the tool puts these bills into a priority order. The tool then lists the steps you can take to help make these payments more manageable.

Didn’t wanna be here, couldn’t find a reason. Until I found a reason.

If this speaks to you, speak to us.

We’re Mind.

We’re here to fight for mental health. mind.org.uk/speaktous

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds David Goggins

You might be familiar with David Goggins. His inspirational rants, usually delivered while running or working out – and always topless – reach millions on social media. People love his no-nonsense, no excuses approach. But if that’s all you know of him, you’re missing out.

In Can’t Hurt Me, Goggins shares the incredible story of how he went from depressed and morbidly obese to one of the fittest and toughest men on the planet.

Goggins transformed his life, and his book will transform yours. Because this isn’t a book you just sit back and absorb. Goggins sets challenges throughout, creating a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, abandon excuses, and reach their full potential.

“Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency. Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re

lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.”

Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy Mo Gawdat

Mo Gawdat had it all. A hugely successful career. Millions in the bank. A fleet of luxury cars. A loving family. So why was he so unhappy?

That’s the question the former chief business officer of Google X set out to answer. Attacking the problem with an engineer’s mind, he examined all the facts and tested everything possible theory. The result? An equation for enduring happiness that anyone can follow.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, tall or short, male or female, young or old. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you do for a living, what language you speak, or what tragedies you’ve endured.

Wherever you are, whoever you are, you want to be happy. It’s a human desire about as basic as the drive to take the next breath.

Whatever we choose to do in life is ultimately an attempt to find this feeling and make it last. Some people look for it in romance, while others seek it in wealth or fame, and still others through some form of accomplishment. Yet we all know of people who are deeply loved, achieve great things, travel the world, snap up all the toys money can buy, indulge in every luxury, and still long for the elusive goal of satisfaction, contentment, and peace—also known as happiness.

Why should something so basic be so hard to find? The truth is, it isn’t. We’re just looking for it in the wrong places.”

Stuffocation: Living More with Less James Wallman

We have more stuff than ever before. But having everything we thought we wanted isn’t making us happier. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s cluttering up our homes. It’s bad for the planet. It’s making us feel stressed. And it might even

be killing us.

Wallman’s solution is to change what we value. A new watch or fancy television will likely give us a fleeting high, at best. But experiences, particularly those shared with friends and family, are the cornerstone of happiness.

The book focuses on the rising number of people turning their back on modern society’s obsession with consumerism and consumption. With intriguing insights on psychology, economics and culture, Stuffocation is a vital manifesto for change. It has inspired those who have read it to be happier and healthier, and to live more, with less.

“Materialism, and the consumer culture and capitalist system it

underpinned, was the right idea for the right time. It meant that the masses, for the first time in human history, lived in abundance rather than scarcity. It gave us washing machines, TVs, and indoor toilets. It delivered clean water, the welfare state, and health care that has improved the length and quality of our lives. It has lifted living standards for those of us

in the wealthy West. And while there are still many who do not have enough, let alone too much, materialism is now doing the same for billions of new consumers from Beijing to Bangalore, and from Lagos to São Paolo.

But materialism’s success is catching up with us. All that abundance is, paradoxically, bringing scarcity once again. Now, for all the reasons causing Stuffocation, materialism is no longer such a great idea. This book is about what I think should happen next. It is a call to arms. Because now that we know that materialism is bad for our health, bad for our happiness, bad for society, and bad for the planet, I think it is time to discard the old belief that more stuff equals more happiness, and, in its place, to create a new equation for happiness, and build a new manifesto for life.”

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway Susan Jeffers

We’re all afraid of something. Whether it’s public speaking, making decision, being alone, intimacy, leaving the job you hate, interviews, going back to school, ageing, ill health, driving, dating, ending a relationship,

losing a loved one, becoming a parent, leaving home, failure, or anything else – Susan Jeffers will help you overcome your fears with her simple but powerfully effective guidance.

The book provides the tools you need to vastly improve your ability to handle any and every given situation. You will learn to live your life the way you want – so you can move from a place of pain, paralysis, depression and indecision, to one of power, energy, enthusiasm and action.

“At the bottom of every one of your fears is simple the fear that you can’t handle whatever life may bring you. If you knew that you can handle anything that came your way, what would you possibly have to fear? The answer is: NOTHING!

You no longer have to control what your mate does, what your friends do, what your children do, or what your boss does. You don’t have to control what happens at an interview, what happens at your job, what happens in your new career, what happens to your

money, or what happens in the stock market.

All you have to do to diminish your fear is to develop more trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way. From this moment on, every time you feel afraid, remind yourself that it is simply because you are not feeling good enough about yourself.”

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson

A self-help book written by a man who thinks most self-help is nonsense. This book is Manson’s antidote to the coddling, ‘let’s all feel good’ mindset that has infected society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson argues that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better.

A much-needed grab-you-by-theshoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humour, the book is a refreshing slap round the chops for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

“The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.

If you find yourself consistently giving too many fucks about trivial shit that bothers you – your exboyfriend’s new Facebook picture, how quickly the batteries die in the TV remote, missing out on yet another two-for-one

sale on hand sanitizer – chances are you don’t have much going on in your life to give a legitimate fuck about. And that’s your real problem. Not the hand sanitizer. Not the TV remote. I once heard an artist say that when a person has no problems, the mind automatically finds a way to invent some. I think what most people – especially educated, pampered middle-class white people – consider “life problems” are really just side effects of not having anything more important to worry about.

Because here’s another sneaky little truth about life. There’s no such thing as a lack of adversity. It doesn’t exist. The old saying goes that no matter where you go, there you are. Well, the same is true for adversity and failure. No matter where you go, there’s a five-hundred-pound load of shit waiting for you. And that’s perfectly fine. The point isn’t to get away from the shit. The point is to find the shit you enjoy dealing with.”

Though the book is 25 years old, it’s still a bestseller today and the

number one personal finance book of all time, with many of the world’s most successful men citing it as the inspiration for their success. There’s also an updated version, so look out for that one.

The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you. Kiyosaki demonstrates that the old advice – get a good job, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify – is both obsolete and flawed.

If you’re interested in improving your own financial situation, or setting your kids up for prosperity, this is the place to start.

“One of the reasons the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class struggles in debt is because the subject of money is taught at home, not in school. Most of us learn about money

from our parents. So what can a poor parent tell their child about money? They simply say “Stay in school and study hard.” The child may graduate with excellent grades but with a poor person’s financial programming and mindset. It was learned while the child was young.

I find so many people struggling, often working harder, simply because they cling to old ideas. They want things to be the way they were; they resist change. I know people who are losing their jobs or their houses, and they blame technology or the economy or their boss. Sadly they fail to realize that they might be the problem. Old ideas are their biggest liability. It is a liability simply because they fail to realize that while that idea or way of doing something was an asset yesterday, yesterday is gone.”

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Robert T. Kiyosaki

be cliché. But there is a difference. It’s not lip service. It’s not a fireand-forget-type approach. This is a practice. You don’t go to the gym once and consider yourself done. Same here. This is a collection of thoughts on what I learned, what worked, what didn’t.

The truth is to love yourself with the same intensity you would use to pull yourself up if you were hanging off a cliff with your fingers. As if your life depended on it. Once you get going, it’s not hard to do. Just takes commitment and I’ll share how I did it.

It’s been transformative for me. I know it will be transformative for you as well.”

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It Kamal Ravikant

In 2011, the company Kamal Ravikant spent ten years of his life building went under. In the wake of this loss, he became profoundly depressed. He couldn’t get out of bed. He felt emotionally empty and physically ill. Then, in his darkest moment, a meditation came to him, a chant that provided a ray of hope and solace: I love myself.

Even when he didn’t believe it–especially when he didn’t believe it–Kamal continued to repeat this mantra over and over. For Kamal, it was the first step of a transformative journey. From that simple meditation, he developed a system of tools that kept him positive, balanced, and moving forward. Soon he was feeling physically better, mentally stronger, and spiritually buoyant.

This book is the story of one man’s radical self-growth and an enriching practice guide to help anyone who feels lost and miserable; who has struggled to get out of bed or smile through profound sadness.

“What is this book about? Loving yourself. Same thing your mom told you, same thing selfhelp books repeat enough times to

The Untethered Soul: The Journey YourselfBeyond

Michael Singer

The book explores the question of who we are and teaches us how to live in the present moment, letting go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and selfrealization.

Singer explains that we all have an inner monologue. 24/7/365, our inner voice is talking and directing

how we navigate the world. But these thoughts don’t define who we are. Once you learn to distinguish between your thoughts and your true self, you will look at yourself in a whole new light and your entire world will change.

“If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a liberating experience. But first you have to approach life properly, or it can be very confusing. To begin with, you have to realize that you really only have one choice in this life, and it’s not about your career, whom you want to marry, or whether you want to seek God. People tend to burden themselves with so many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It’s really that simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.

Most people don’t dare give themselves that choice because they think it’s not under their control. Someone might say, “Well, of course I want to be happy, but my wife left me.” In other words, they want to be happy, but not if their wife leaves them. But that wasn’t the question. The question was, very simply, “Do you want to be happy or not?” If you keep it that simple, you will see that it really is under your control. It’s just that you have a deep-seated set of preferences that gets in the way.

You have to give an unconditional answer. If you decide that you’re going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened. Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. You don’t have to learn Sanskrit or read any scriptures. You don’t have to renounce the world. You just have to really mean it when you say that you choose to be happy. And you have to mean it regardless of what happens. This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist.”

Atomic Habits James Clear

People think that changing your life means doing big things. Worldrenowned habits expert James Clear knows otherwise. He explains that real change comes from the

compound effect of hundreds of small decisions, whether that’s doing two press-ups, waking up five minutes earlier, or making a single phone call.

In the book, Clear delves into the latest psychology and neuroscience to explain why these habits matter so much and how to build better ones that create the life you want.

Using examples from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, leading CEOs, life-saving physicians and star comedians, Atomic Habits will help you achieve anything you want, one small step at a time.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big.

That’s the paradox of making small improvements.

Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits—not oncein-a-lifetime transformations.

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.”

Man’s Search For Meaning

A prominent psychiatrist before World War II, Frankl spent years in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, during which he observed the difference between those who survived and those who didn’t. The book attests that everything can be taken away from you, apart from your ability to choose your attitude in any situation.

Frankl believed that a man’s deepest desire is to find meaning in his life. Find that meaning and he can survive anything.

The book identifies the three ways to find meaning in life and in each moment. Frankl helps you overcome your biggest fears and achieve your greatest goals.

“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfil the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: ‘Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?’ There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one’s opponent.”

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears

The Blue Zones Dan Buettner

Fancy living a longer, healthier life? In a world of contradictory advice and rapidly changing health trends, it can be difficult to know what we should be doing for our own good.

To find the true path to long life and good health, Buettner and his team studied the world’s

experienced in later years.

“The brutal reality about aging is that it has only an accelerator pedal. The name of the game is to keep from pushing the accelerator pedal so hard that we speed up the aging process. The average American, however, by living a fast and furious lifestyle, pushes that accelerator too hard and too much.

This book is about discovering the world’s best practices in health and longevity and putting them to work in our lives. Most of us have more control over how long we live than we think. In fact, experts say that if we adopted the right lifestyle, we could add at least ten good years and suffer a fraction of the diseases that kill us prematurely. This could mean an extra quality decade of life!

To identify the secrets of longevity, our team of demographers, medical scientists, and journalists went straight to the best sources. We travelled to the Blue Zones — four of the healthiest corners of the globe — where a remarkably high

living people manage to avoid many of the diseases that kill Americans. These are the places where people enjoy up to a 3 times better chance of reaching 100 than we do.

We looked for the common denominators — the practices found in all four populations — and came up with what I consider to be a cross-cultural distillation of the best practices of health, a de facto formula for longevity.”

with information overload? Felt busy but unproductive? Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?

If the answer to any of those is yes, the way out is to become an Essentialist.

The book argues that the modern obsession with getting more done in less time is a mistake and that we can’t do everything or have it all. It’s about regaining control of our choices about where to spend our time and energy, doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.

McKeown draws on draws on experience and insight from working with the leaders of the most innovative companies in the world to show how to achieve the disciplined pursuit of less.

Essentialism isn’t one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything. It is a discipline you apply constantly, effortlessly. Essentialism is a mindset; a way of life. It is an idea whose time has come.

“How many times have you reacted to a request by saying yes without really thinking about it? How many times have you resented committing to do something and simply to please? Or to avoid trouble? Or because “yes” had just become your

The way of the

Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say “no” more, or about pruning your in-box, or about mastering some new strategy in time management. It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?” There are far more activities and opportunities in in the world than we have time and resources to invest in. And although many of them may be good, or even very good, the fact is that most are trivial and few are vital. The way of the Essentialist involves learning to tell the difference--learning to filter through all those options and selecting only those that are truly essential.

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

\\ IF YOU DON’T PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE, SOMEONE ELSE WILL //

There are certain things most people tend to want to do the day after running a marathon. Stay in bed all day. Eat lots of food. Get a massage. Shuffle around like a 90-year-old penguin. Avoid stairs at all costs. Pretty far down the list, for most people, would be running another marathon. But Gary McKee isn’t most people. The 53-year-old from Cumbia is running a marathon every single day during 2022.

No, I’ve been a fundraiser for the last 20 years. I’ve cycled through Brazil. I’ve climbed Kilimanjaro. I’ve run from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. I’ve run the Coast to Coast. I’ve done 100 marathons in 100 days; 110 marathons in 110 days. The first time I ever did the London Marathon, I ran from my house in the Lake District to London, doing 50 miles a day for seven days, and then ran the Marathon.

How do you cope?

Once you say what you’re doing, you just do it. You back it up and you do it. It’s a simple case of finding what works for you and sticking to it. Build a routine and go with it. I’m only doing what I said I was going to do, and what I feel I am capable of doing.

Do you not get injuries or just exhausted?

You do get injuries and you do get tired. I work shifts so there are times when I’m working the morning shift so I do my marathon after work, but then the next day I might be working the afternoon shift, so I do it before work. That

means I’m doing two marathons in 16 hours. There are times when you have a shit day at work or something has happened at home and then you’ve got to go and do a marathon. But you’ve just got to look for the positives, because there are positives in everything if you just dig deep enough to find them.

Do you run alone?

I keep a diary of all the runs and, looking back, it’s been almost three months since I last ran on my own. There have been people with me, whether that’s running a full marathon themselves, cycling alongside me, or running part of the route with me. It keeps you going, talking to people, bouncing off each other – it helps the time go.

Is it friends and family running with you?

Yeah, and I get a lot of schools involved; the children will run with me for a little bit. Last week, I had a special needs school join me. A lot of the children had callipers on, some of them were on little frames, and they just did about 400 meters with me. But it was probably the most powerful 400 meters out of the 7,000-plus miles I’ve run this year. Because you could see in the children’s eyes that they wanted to do what I was doing, but their bodies just wouldn’t allow them to. There was a little lad who kept falling over, but he kept getting back up. And when you look at life, that is exactly what life is about.

This isn’t the first crazy challenge you’ve done, is it?

It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get back up.

And that child demonstrated that that’s what you’ve got to do sometimes – you’ve just got to get back up and keep going.

Do you do the same route every day or mix it up?

There have only been two days that I haven’t done the same route. That’s because it starts and finishes at my home. And it means there are plenty of opportunities for people to join me because they know where I’ll be.

Halfway round there’s an elderly couple who come out to see me every day with tea and cake. The whole community is supporting me, and some people don’t really get out of the house apart from coming out to see me, so it’s a good opportunity for them to mix and see each other. It’s good for people to mix and talk.

Being in the Lake District, that can’t be a particularly flat route?

Each day my run is about 1,000 feet of ascent. I worked out that I’ve been up and down Everest nine times this year already, across 7,300 miles.

\\ I WORKED OUT THAT I’VE BEEN UP AND DOWN EVEREST NINE TIMES THIS YEAR

What sort of pace are you doing the marathons?

The first 200 were all done under four hours. I think the quickest was a 3:24. I picked up an injury around 200 days in and there’s a very accomplished runner who comes out with me sometimes who said, “You’re going too quick, you should be doing 10-minute miles”. When I ran Lands End to John O Groats my pace was bang on 10-minute miles; it just means your recovery is a lot easier. I’m doing just over four hours now. It’s good as it means more people join you because they don’t see the pace as being too quick. They feel as if they can keep up, and I’ve seen that in the number of people joining me – I’ve had about 20 people join me in the last month for the full marathon.

Do you not get sore legs?

I don’t get DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) because I keep my legs moving all the time. I use massage guns, I’ve got a sauna at home and I think heat is really good for muscle regrowth and other benefits. A lot of people talk about ice baths and stuff like that but I don’t believe in all that.

\\ PEOPLE TALK ABOUT ICE BATHS AND STUFF BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IN ALL THAT //

You must be eating a lot to fuel this?

I’ve had the same breakfast pretty much every day, a couple of slices of toast with jam and two cups of coffee. People say, “Oh, you need to fuel before a marathon or you’ll run out of energy,” and I’m thinking “What a load of shite. I have two bits of toast and I’m doing this on a daily basis!” I’ve always trained on an empty stomach and it works for me.

It started when my dad passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1997. He was a cancer survivor but passed away six years later from an unrelated illness. I wanted to do something in his memory. I thought back to the day we were told he had cancer, and how lots of families will be being told that devastating news. There are 1,000 people every day being told the devastating news that we’ve got cancer, so I wanted to be able to give them the support they needed, so I fundraise for Macmillan Cancer Support.

There are a couple of lads who are really, really struggling with their mental health, and one of them said, ”It’s better than going to the doctors. Without a shadow of a doubt, when I come with you, and we run, it just clears my head, and I feel wonderful after it.”

I eat a lot the rest of the time; when you’re running 195 miles a week, you have to, or you’re going to drop a lot of weight. The amount of food I eat is unbelievable and I still lose about a pound a week. You burn about 4,000 calories running a marathon so it’s hard not to lose weight

It must be hard to fit in the running alongside work and

I’ve used all my annual leave and the company have helped with letting me work from home sometimes but I’ve still got to go to work. When I’m on the afternoon shift, I’m up at 4.30am, off at 6 o’clock for my marathon, and by the time I’ve done the social media stuff afterwards, it gives me a couple of hours to do my legs, get something to eat and then go to work. I’m at work until 10pm so I’m not getting a

What was the motivation to start these epic feats of endurance?

Do you see the mental benefits of running?

I don’t really have a social life at the moment, but that doesn’t bother me because I said what I was going to do and I knew what that meant. I’ve got three children and my middle son said, “If you’re doing 365, I’m doing 365 with you, Dad”. He does 10 miles on the bike every day during the week, and on the weekends or school holidays he comes out with me on his bike; he’s done almost 50 marathons with me, on his bike.

down, and somebody had commented saying, “Can you just not do it under four hours anymore?” I think a lot of it is managing your own expectations and not other people’s.

Has it been harder than you expected?

My children have seen me fundraise all their lives and they’ve done fundraising themselves. In 2018 my son ran for 501 consecutive days and raised £35,000.

I’ve always explained to the kids that £50 buys a food blender for somebody with throat cancer. Look at all the money you’re raising and divide that by 50 – that’s how many people you’re helping. And if you help one person today, then you’ve done your job.

It doesn’t only extend to helping people going through a cancer journey. If you smile at somebody, that might be the only smile they get that day. So I always encourage anyone cycling with me or running with me to speak to everybody that they see and say, “Hello, how are you doing?” It does make a difference.

How much have you raised so far?

There’s just over £210,000 on the JustGiving page [JustGiving. com/ThreeSixFive. Over the last 20 years I’ve raised over a million pounds.

I set out to get to the end, and I’ll get to the end. I don’t need to do fast marathons, I need to complete marathons. I haven’t walked a single step, every step I’ve taken has been running. You know, you see people doing challenges and you look at the times, and it’s taking them seven hours to run a marathon. Well, you don’t run a marathon in seven hours, you walk, you run a bit, you walk a bit, you run a bit.

It isn’t easy running a marathon and then having to go and deal with a shift at work.

I think a lot of people generally think that I’m making it look easy, but it’s not easy. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. Somebody pointed out to me the other day, saying, “What you’re doing, only a handful of people, not only on the planet, but in the history of mankind, have ever done.” You know, it sort of blows you away when you put it into perspective.

What keeps you going when it gets really tough?

There are loads of moments. I remember it was lashing down, there was rain dropping off somebody’s nose, and I was chuckling. He said, “Why are you laughing?” and I said, “Because somebody is going to ring the bell today to signify that they’re cancer-free and they’ve finished their treatment. They’re going to walk outside and it’s going to be like this,

I think it’s adjusting my pace and the comments you get. There are about 6,500 people following me on Strava. I was nursing an injury, I had to do my marathon late in the day, it was lashing

Do you hope the kids will follow in your fundraising footsteps?

What’s been the hardest part of this challenge so far?

lashing down, and they’re going to say, ‘This is the nicest rain I’ve ever had’.” When it rains, we run in somebody else’s rain. We run to get them to ring that bell. It’s that feeling that lifts people when they’re cold, they’re wet, and they feel like they don’t want to be there.

Have you always had that positive mindset?

I’ve always thought that you either win or you learn. Sometimes you’ve just got to change your position to gain perspective on things. I’ve always said, if you dig deep enough, you’ll find what you’re looking for. You’ve just got to look for the silver lining because, believe me, it’s there. If WD40 was successful first time, it would be called WD1. You’ve got to keep going until you find what you’re looking for. Just keep going. When you’re going through darkness, there will be light. You’ve just got to believe in yourself and keep pushing. And there are people around you who will nudge you along, just find the positives in them. Look for the win. The win is there, you’ve just got to get it.

There was a guy called Ben Smith doing 401 marathons in 401 days in 2016. He had 10 days out because he had a back injury, so he had to make up the extra miles and couldn’t do it on consecutive days. If I added my treadmill miles to the marathons, that would equate to something like 420 marathons in 365 days, but I don’t count those miles.

Why are you doing treadmill miles on top of the marathons?!

I use a treadmill in my house to warm up and warm down, just a couple of slow miles.

Are you looking forward to the end?

I always say it’s the end of the chapter, not the end of the book. And the end has always got to come. It isn’t as if I’m going to fall off the end of a cliff the day after, I’ll still be doing 100 miles a week after this, just to keep my legs right.

It’s a bittersweet feeling at the end because there is always that bit of emptiness when it’s all over. It’s like a professional footballer playing in front of 50,000 people every week; when he finishes, he doesn’t get that anymore. That’s why there’s a lot of depression among ex-sportsmen, because they don’t have the highs to keep them happy anymore. It’s a similar feeling for me, because the whole community know who I am and support me. But another challenge will pop up and we’ll do something else. Just because I’ve stopped, doesn’t mean cancer will stop.

Has anyone ever done anything like this before?

TACKLING BODY IMAGE

Whether it’s hair, height, weight, gains… most of us have something we feel subconscious about. But how you feel about your body can impact your mental health. CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) are here to help with your body image worries…

We all feel crap about how we look sometimes. No matter who you are, where you’re from, or your gender, the way your body looks can make you feel rubbish.

But if the way you look is making you feel really low and affecting how you live your life, remember you’re not alone. You can talk to CALM’s free and anonymous helpline to chat through whatever is getting you down.

Body image is how we see or imagine ourselves to look, but sometimes how we think we look doesn’t match up to reality. In recent years, and with the development of social media platforms, selfies, photo filters and fitness ‘challenges’, it can be easy to forget that the perfect body

doesn’t exist.

We’ll say that again – the perfect body doesn’t exist. No matter what the scale says, no matter the definition of your muscles, or the hairs on your head, that image of the perfect body in our heads is make believe.

And chasing after it? It can make life pretty tough and sometimes lead to other mental health issues such as eating disorders, obsessions and anxiety.

Body image can be influenced and distorted by all kinds of things, like how we were brought up, our mood, what we see regularly on the TV and in the media, and loads of other stuff.

The way we see our bodies and the way we look can have a huge impact on our mental wellbeing, self-esteem, relationships and even quality of life.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO STRUGGLE WITH HOW YOU LOOK?

Anyone can struggle with their mental wellbeing because of how they look or feel they look. Our body image can impact our mental wellbeing and it can be difficult to take a step back from negative thoughts and feelings.

It’s not always easy to love every part of our bodies, but once we start to focus on a ‘flaw’, it’s easy for those thoughts to get louder. When it becomes hard to switch off from these negative thoughts it can have a huge impact on our mood and mental health.

If you or someone you know is struggling with their body image, they may feel some of the following:

Can’t stop thinking about how they look

Obsession on a perceived flaw

Believing they are unattractive or ugly

Isolation and loneliness

Avoiding social engagements or certain activities

Constantly comparing their appearance to others

Relying on reassurance from others about appearance

Obsessing over what other people think

Low self-worth/low self esteem

DON’T DISMISS IT, TALK

There are some damaging stereotypes when it comes to body image. The issue is often misunderstood as superficial or vain. It’s not. Dismissing someone’s worries can stop them from talking about how they’re feeling and prevent them from seeking support. If body image is affecting your behaviour or making it difficult to go about everyday life, you should talk to someone about how you feel. That could be a friend or family member, a GP or medical professional or the CALM Helpline.

THINGS THAT CAN INFLUENCE HOW WE SEE OURSELVES:

Pressure to look a certain way or match a certain body type

How people we know speak about bodies and appearance

Exposure to idealised or unrealistic bodies through the media

Our relationship to friends, family and communities

DEALING WITH BODY IMAGE WORRIES

Noticing you’re struggling with your body image can be a positive first step in starting to feel better. When you feel ready, there are a few things you can try which can help how you’re feeling:

Remember everyone’s body is unique and there’s no such thing as an ‘ideal’ body

Focussing on being healthy and happy can build self-esteem and confidence

Think about all the things your body does. Pretty impressive

Limit the time you spend scrolling social media or unfollow people who are overly focused on the way they look/promote unhealthy body images

Every single body is different, and that’s not a bad thing

Wear clothes that make you feel good

If you’re worried about your relationship to your body image, talk to someone

FINDING HELP:

Talk to CALM from 5pm to midnight everyday. Our professional helpline staff are there to talk and to help you find ways to move forward. Calls and webchats are free, anonymous, non-judgemental and confidential.

Outside of these hours, call the Samaritans on 116 123. Contact your GP for an appointment (which might be done over the phone or by video).

Self-refer yourself to NHS Psychological Therapies https://bit.ly/3U45d9U

Call CALM on 0800 58 58 58 Start a webchat at thecalmzone. net

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\\ IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR BODY IMAGE, TALK TO SOMEONE

REWRITING THE PHONE BOOK

‘What’s that, you say? The Phone Book? In 2022? Oh come on, who needs The Phone Book when you’ve got Google?’Well it turns out that quite a lot of people need it. Last December alone saw over 21 million people use The Phone Book online. And we’re still delivering 19 million paper versions every year.

People still count on The Phone Book to track down old friends, find local businesses, and get in touch with all those fantastic local services that you only think about when you need something in a hurry. Like a curry on a Friday night when your mates turn up hungry. A car body shop when the A3’s had a nasty scrape. Or maybe a builder for when your DIY goes OMG.

‘YEAH, BUT … GOOGLE?’. SURE, THE INTERNET’S GREAT FOR FINDING PEOPLE ROUND THE WORLD.

BUT WE CAN HELP YOU FIND SOMEONE ROUND THE CORNER.

We believe there’s room for everyone. Search the world with the internet, look local with your Phone Book.

And that’s why we’ve made it even easier to find the things you’re after in the place you live. It’s only when you need it that you spot the gap. When you’ve sprung a leak in your flat, you need to get hold of a plumber, fast. There’s no point calling a plumber in Peru when you’re frantically trying to keep the PS5 dry in Pimlico. The Phone Book now plugs that gap. It’s not a search engine: it’s a find engine.

You know what it’s like when you drop out of your Sunday League team, or signup to a new gym, or move to a new job in a new town. It’s easy to lose touch with your mates. Sometimes people just drop out of your contacts. Tracking them down again can be a right pain. It may also be mission: impossible. Until now. Because we’ve fixed it.

Finding a person who you’ve lost touch with has never been easier thanks to the Find a Person feature on The Phone Book online. Just pop in their name and the area where you think they live and off you go.

But The Phone Book online isn’t just a ‘find’ engine. Flip that idea on its head and what have you got? A ‘be found’ engine. If you’re running a local business, you don’t just need local customers: it’s an existential disaster if you can’t find them. For small business owners, The Phone Book print and online are essential tools.

With unrivalled reach into every nook and cranny of the UK, it’s the perfect place for easy, cost-effective advertising. You’re getting right in front of the eyes of your customers, the people in your neighbourhood. Ads in The Phone Book hit a receptive local customer base and, thanks to the online hub, give you visibility to potential customers all over the place. And that’s great news if you’re plugging away in a niche market or focussing on specialist products.

WANT A BIKE SHOP IN BELIZE? USE THE INTERNET. BUT IF YOU WANT A DENTIST IN DONCASTER, YOU’RE GOING TO NEED THE PHONE BOOK.

‘BUT IT’S JUST A LIST OF NAMES AND PHONE NUMBERS, ISN’T IT?’

NO, IT’S WAY MORE THAN JUST AN EXCEEDINGLY LONG LIST, ESPECIALLY THE ONLINE VERSION. NOW, IT TRULY IS THERE WHEREVER AND WHENEVER YOU NEED IT. IT’S AN INTERACTIVE ONLINE HUB. IT’S A VOICE-ACTIVATED SERVICE. AND IT’S ON THE STREET, WITH OUR UNIQUE DIGITAL STREET HUBS.

HENNESSEY

VENOM F5

Its sights firmly set on the far side of 300mph, we get an early drive in the sensational, 1817bhp Venom F5. Deep breath…

You’ll be familiar with the hennessey Venom F5. Conceived to crack 300mph, this sequel to the ballistic Venom GT is Texas tuning mogul John Hennessey’s ultimate statement on extreme speed.

Five miles a minute might seem the most trivial of pursuits, but just as the magic milestones of 100 and 200mph motivated engineers and fascinated drivers in the distant and more recent past, so 300mph is today’s supercar Shangri-La. It’s this rarefi ed realm that the F5 has been built to explore.

When you’re offered the unexpected

chance to get close to a bona fi de 300mph challenger, you jump at it, even if it’s billed as little more than a shakedown. Which is how we find ourselves not at some shimmering NASA facility in Texas or Florida, but at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, England, where Hennessey’s F5 development prototype is being run ahead of its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Full-speed runs aren’t on the agenda, not least because Millbrook simply isn’t big enough, but John Hennessey has promised we can give it the beans on the Mile Straight and drive it on the Alpine Route. It’s the type of opportunity that simultaneously parches your mouth and moistens your palms.

There’s something about targeting monster speeds that lends this unique breed of car a special kind of charisma. No matter how jaded you might think you are about cars that are ridiculously rapid and cost several million dollars, I guarantee you would be pulled towards the F5 as if by some sort of tractor beam. The shape is supersubtle, every surface smoothed and curve elongated to present as little resistance to the air as possible. With a generous wheelbase and ride height set low for stability and efficiency, it has arrow-like form and function.

Idling on one of Millbrook’s large tarmac aprons, the Venom pulses with an uneven, semi-seismic exhaust note. A sweet waft of burnt alcohol drifts on the breeze, olfactory evidence that the crew have filled the F5 with ethanol-rich E85 to extract maximum power from the Hennessey-built 6.6-litre twin-turbo ‘Fury’ V8. Even at tickover the turbos sound like they’re gently simmering, their soft turbine whistle adding texture to the ballsy burble that flows from the pair of side-by-side exhaust stubs poking from the rear end. It’s a spectacular slice of The Right Stuff in the heart of England.

To understand the genesis of the Venom F5 it helps to be familiar with the Venom

GT that preceded it. Like all these ultra-fast machines, the GT was something of an enigma but a car with which we’re intimately acquainted, having visited Hennessey’s homeland back in 2013 to drive the GT Spyder. To this day it’s the only car I’ve ever tested where I’d topped 200mph within the first mile of driving it. It helped that we had the run of a NASA-grade runway, but it’s an indication of just how outrageously fast such cars are that 200 felt no more eventful than stroking up to 120 in a 911 Turbo.

No offence to John Hennessey, but I can remember flying out to Dallas wondering what in hell I was about to drive. A few days later, having also explored the roads that criss-cross the endless Texas ranchland, I flew home wondering how in hell they’d managed to create such a polished and convincing road car that could achieve such an absurd top speed. To this day it’s one of the most memorable and enjoyable supercars cars I’ve ever driven.

The Venom GT was a breakthrough. One that turned a profit (never a given with such projects) and enabled John Hennessey to revel in riling aristocratic Bugatti in typically rootin’ tootin’ style. More importantly it demonstrated a scope of capability and a deep-seated desire to continue the journey

beyond the world of tuner cars. Predictably it failed to convince those who couldn’t see beyond the heavily modified Lotus Elise tub and cartoonishly augmented bodywork, but the sniping provided further impetus for Hennessey to commit to a clean-sheet successor: the Venom F5.

Having hit 270 with the Venom GT, the obvious target for the F5 was 300mph. It’s an absurd speed. One that until recently was the preserve of Top Fuel dragsters and jetpowered Land Speed Record cars. That we now have multiple road car projects aiming at the triple-ton shows just how far the arts of aerodynamics, engine building and tyre technology have come. And, of course, how such cars remain irresistible to those with a few (million) quid to spend.

For John Hennessey there was clearly an element of unfinished business with the Venom GT. ‘It bothered me that despite beating Bugatti with our one-way run at 270mph back in 2014, the internet and people on social media said: “It’s just a modified Elise.” I probably should have ignored them, but knowing how much of that car was bespoke, I felt we deserved more credit. On the plus side it motivated me to decide we were ready to do our own car from the ground up.’

LEFT & RIGHT: Millbrook’s Mile Straight provides a chance to find out what 1817bhp and 1198lb ft feel like; laps of Alpine Route suggest F5 is no onetrick pony

\\ EVEN AT 250MPH, THE VENOM F5 IS JUST HITTING ITS STRIDE //

It would be three years before the F5 programme gained traction, but from that point on things happened fast: ‘We reached a kind of critical mass in 2017 when we hired a design team and built a full-scale model, which we introduced at the SEMA show. At this stage we didn’t have the budget or a detailed plan of how we were actually going to build it, but within a month of SEMA we had six orders.

‘That gave us the green light to go for it with the F5, and further validated what we’d achieved with the GT. By 2018 we started on the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) using the Venom GT as our baseline. Everything was led by our in-house design team in Texas, who then worked closely with some great experts, many of whom are based in the UK.

‘We started with TotalSim, who really did an awesome job in defining the aerodynamics. We continued our relationship with Delta Motorsport [another Silverstone-based specialist] who we’d worked with on the GT. I hired John Heinricy [former head of GM’s Performance Division and late-phase consultant on the Venom GT] as chief engineer so that he could have more influence over the project.

We worked with AP Racing and Brembo on the brakes, Cima on the transmission, Motec on our management systems, Bosch on the ABS and traction control and Penske on the suspension, plus long-time partners Shell and Penzoil on our fuel and lubricants.’

If this sounds like a 300mph jigsaw puzzle then you’d be correct, but that’s the nature of so many modern hypercar projects. Bugatti uses Dallara for the Chiron chassis. Mercedes is relying upon Multimatic to deliver the Project One and Aston Martin famously outsourced the Valkyrie engine to Cosworth and the aero to Red Bull and Adrian Newey. In defining the F5 concept in-house and then collaborating closely with expert technical partners in order to create it, Hennessey is in very good company.

The scale of such a project is immense, with some 700 individual pieces of tooling and 3000 new parts. According to Hennessey ‘there’s nothing in the F5 that’s come from anything else’. Just 24 F5 Coupes will be built (all are sold) plus a run of the recently announced F5 Roadster. Cars are assembled at Hennessey’s facility in Sealy, Texas. Car no.7 is currently in-build, with subsequent cars being finished at the rate of roughly one per month.

Naturally the engine is the heart of the F5, and though it owes its pushrod architecture to the Chevy LS, it’s so highly evolved as to be unrecognisable from the motor you’d find in any stock GM model, with everything from the all-new block upwards built to Hennessey’s requirements. Displacing 6.6 litres, the handbuilt ‘Fury’ cross-plane-crank 90-deg V8 features an iron block, alloy heads and twin turbos. The on-paper results are jaw-dropping: running on E85 fuel it develops 1817bhp at 8000rpm, with peak torque of 1198lb ft at 5000rpm. Fill it with 98 octane superunleaded and it develops a little under 1600bhp.

The car we’ll be driving has done the bulk of high-speed testing. To date that’s more than 40 runs at over 250mph on a runway in Florida. Even at this speed the F5 is just hitting its stride. By the end of this year Hennessey is hoping to have discovered just how fast it can go: ‘Our engineers believe that with our power figure, drag coefficient and frontal area the theoretical top speed is 328mph. I’m not aiming at that figure, but if we could maybe do a one-way run at 500kph (a fraction under 311mph) and achieve a two-way average of comfortably more than 300mph, then great.

Engineers have calculated a theoretical top speed of 328mph

We know from past experience with the GT, and Bugatti hitting 304 one-way with the Chiron Super Sport, that people will throw rocks at you if you don’t post a two-way average. Whatever you claim, it has to be irrefutable, whether that’s with Guinness overseeing things, or VBOX validating your speeds.’

One other area of contention is homologation. Ironically, given Hennessey’s homeland, the US is by far the toughest territory in which to gain full Federal approval. The F5 will be homologated for road use in every country it is sold, but US owners have to register the car for so-called Show & Display use, which restricts their annual mileage. The same is true of many exotic hypercars, including the Lotus Evija, McLaren Speedtail, GMA T.50 and even the Bugatti Divo. The media tend to get hung up on homologation, but on the evidence of Hennessey’s order book it doesn’t seem to be a barrier for high-end customers. We’re about to find out why… Millbrook’s Mile Straight is the perfect facility to get a taste of the Venom. Such is the scope of its performance we’ll only be able to sample a fraction of its ultimate pace, but running in full-fat ‘F5’ mode we will have the opportunity to feel its full fury. At least until the tight, steeply banked corner looms like a mirage through the heat shimmer at the far end of the straight.

With a paddleshift gearbox and Bosch traction control there’s little in the way of ritual or warm-up. Indeed, the only thing Hennessey asks is that we punch it from a rolling start to preserve the clutch and transmission ahead of the all-important debut at Goodwood. In many ways the granny start makes what happens next all the more crazy. Having short-shifted into 2nd gear, the rate at which the F5 punches forwards under full-throttle acceleration is genuinely befuddling. It’s a full-on sensory assault. One that leaves you shellshocked as your body struggles to compute what’s just happened. Traction is almost unshakable, with just the slightest sensation of the rear wheels over-speeding as the hammer blow of boost hits home. It’s all you can do to maintain the presence of mind to keep pulling the right-hand paddle, as each gear is devoured with the kind of ferocity that should strip teeth from the ratios.

Such is the speed at which we’re accelerating that the Mile Straight’s road furniture genuinely blurs into a tunnel of grey galvanised Armco and dayglo orange marker cones. Somewhere around halfway down the straight, the digital display passes 200mph. It’s all happened so quickly it feels like I left my brain back at the start. I certainly haven’t breathed since flooring the throttle. Enough!

A split second after coming off the throttle, I’m hit by a ridiculously intense adrenaline rush. One that has my hands shaking and my whole body supercharged with stimulant. Only when I’m on the slow return road does the realisation dawn that I’ve explored less the two-thirds of the F5’s projected performance. I’ve driven some very fast cars in my time, but this truly is a whole new level of speed.

Even away from the singular challenge of the Mile Straight, the F5 is never less than intense.

carbonfibre body was shaped to achieve the lowest possible drag while maintaining stabilty at 300mph+.

\\

There’s plenty of mechanical noise, likewise significant road noise transmitted through the carbonfibre structure. Stones picked up by the wide, sticky tyres clatter in the arches. Where a Chiron isolates and insulates you to the point of sensory deprivation, you feel right in the midst of things in the F5. It’s not uncomfortable, but cossetting its occupants was clearly low on the list of project objectives.

Given the tight, sub-3000lb (1360kg) weight target, that’s hardly a surprise. Doubtless a few hundred kilos of sounddeadening material would make it feel more habitable, but the F5 is a single-minded project. One that Hennessey knew it was vital to retain on a tight leash in order to keep the project on budget, on time and on target to achieve its all-important performance objectives.

What’s surprising about the F5 is it’s actually very easy to drive slowly. Final-stage fine-tuning of the transmission calibration will iron out the remaining rough edges, but in general it’s super-impressive how this ferocious 1800bhp machine happily copes with the low-speed demands of photo shoots. Trundling around Millbrook’s twisty Alpine Route doing car-to-car photography almost feels like an insult for a car aiming at the far side of 300mph, but not only does the powertrain feel happy to dawdle, but

oil and water temperatures remain entirely unflustered in the unusually high ambient temperatures experienced during our test.

We run in Sport mode. It’s plenty, believe me. There’s less immediately explosive response, but the way the boost and therefore propulsion builds is impressive in a different way. It’s almost more impressive because your brain has a chance to predict what’s coming, so you get the anticipation, quickly followed by the rapid and inexorable build in longitudinal G before the full headlong rush arrives.

One common challenge these ultrafast machines battle with is the paradox between needing to steer and handle with the calmness necessary for running at 250mph and beyond, but not being so inert as to be one-dimensional. Bugatti suffered criticism for the mild manner in which the Veyron delivered its performance, and consequently put more effort into spicing up the Chiron. It is a more engaging machine as a result, yet compared with the F5 it’s a limousine.

It’s hard not to regard any of these 300mph challengers as one-trick ponies, but on the evidence of our drive on the Alpine Route the Venom F5 will be an engaging and tactile machine to drive on the road. It steers with precision, communicates clearly and deploys its

performance in a manner that’s very easy to modulate. Of course, the knowledge that you can barely dip your toe in the water will mean exercising monastic levels of self-control, but knowing what you have in reserve will bring its own satisfaction. And let’s be honest, if you were to momentarily yield to temptation it’s not like you’d need much time or space to feel the intoxicating embrace of 1200lb ft squeezing the breath from your lungs.

It’s a feeling we hope to experience firsthand when Hennessey takes the F5 for its V-max validating runs later this year, either on a runway in Florida or – tantalisingly – a new stretch of Interstate Highway being built near Hennessey’s Texas HQ.

In all honesty, as I sit at my laptop, I’m not sure how I’d feel about driving at 300-plus mph in any car on any stretch of tarmac. And yet deep down I know it’s an utterly enthralling prospect. The chance to embark on the last great automotive adventure is surely impossible to resist.

Engine V8, 6555cc, twin-turbo Power 1817bhp @ 8000rpm Torque 1198lb ft @ 5000rpm Weight 1360kg (1357bhp/ton) 0-60mph 2.6sec Top speed 311mph (est) Price c£1,500,000

+ Ballistic performance; surprising drivability They’re all sold evo rating

WINTER

PLAY US A STORY

Mindless action has its place, but the greatest games have a narrative that makes you truly care about the characters and what happens to them. We asked the experts at TheGamer.com to name the 10 best story-driven video games.

The Last Of Us

Platform: PS3 & PS4

Release: 2013

Time to beat: 16 hours

Here’s a game whose mechanics and design are built around survival in a fairly linear fashion. You move from location to location, avoiding or killing zombie-like enemies, looting to find materials, crafting weapons, and simply getting from A to B in one piece. Without its stellar story, this game would not be the milestone we deem it to be today. The Last of Us put truth to the statement that a game’s narrative can drive its plot when its gameplay only has so many tricks up its sleeve. Telling the tale of a man who must keep a valuable young girl alive, bonding with her, and learning to warm up his cold, cold heart along the way, their relationship is what keeps us from turning off this game.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Platform: PS4 & PC

Release: 2017

Time to beat: 60 hours

The genius of Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t just the intensely unique world or the beautiful graphics. Gamers who play this game with their eyes and hearts open will understand that Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t just a great story; it’s two great stories.

From the beginning, protagonist Aloy is confused and curious about her past and unravels that mystery as the game goes along. But just as important is her immediate surroundings. Aloy is deeply connected to the post-apocalyptic world as much as the preapocalyptic one.

The cast of characters is diverse and each one has unique and believable motivations and perspectives.

8. Detroit: Become Human

Platform: PS4 & PC

Release: 2018

Time to beat: 12 hours

In 2019, Detroit: Become Human saw its PC release after being a PlayStation 4 exclusive for some time. As one of the strongest titles to have come out in 2018, it was a massive addition to the ranks of games with robust storylines the player could actively influence by making specific choices.

The game takes players to the near future, where androids serve every whim of mankind. However, underneath the surface androids are rising up to protect their rights and fight against their masters. By controlling each main character the player gets to decide the fate of androids.

7. Knights Of The Old Republic

Platform: PC & Mobile Release: 2003 Time to beat: 46.5 hours

The game with the best plot twist of all time (don’t worry, we won’t spoil it here) was only able to pull it off thanks to a story that completely absorbs its audience. Knights of the Old Republic is a masterpiece that encourages players to explore the light, the dark, and the great side of the force.

Choices abound in a tight-knit group of compelling characters that join the party at various times. It can’t be overstated: If Knights of the Old Republic were a movie, it would be recognized as the greatest Star Wars movie ever. Even with the 2003 graphics.

6. God Of War

Platform: PS4

Release: 2018

Time to beat: 21 hours

The game that took home the Game of the Year prize in 2018 was a narrative-focused singleplayer experience exclusive to the PS4. God of War is a sequel/ reboot of the classic bloodspattered action franchise, containing far less blood and far more narrative, dialogue, character growth, and plot progression.

The genius of this game comes with its refusal to sacrifice gameplay and world design for storytelling, proving that gamers can have their cake and eat it, too. Here is a game with a tremendously private and intimate story of a father and his son both coming to terms with the death of the boy’s mother, all while delivering a rich world to explore and deep combat to enjoy.

5. Persona 5 Royal

Platform: PS4 Release: 2020

Time to beat: 103 hours

Speaking of meshing styles together, with Persona 5 Royal, developers Atlus managed to blend two disparate genres: the life (and sometimes dating) simulator, and the dungeon-crawling RPG. This is an intense and long story of a game, with 100 hours of story content to experience — not a single hour of which could be accused of being filler.

Set in Tokyo, Persona 5 Royal tells the story of a young boy, codenamed Joker, who sets out to right the wrongs of corrupt officials, artists, and businessmen by changing their hearts. When he’s not doing this, he’s surviving school exams, making friends, and falling in love. The game juggles two narratives: that of the Tokyo teenager and that of the worldsaving protagonist.

4. That Dragon, Cancer

Platform: PC & Mobile

Release: 2016

Time to beat: 2 hours

Expectations going into That Dragon, Cancer were low; gamers knew that the game was developed by a small team with almost no budget and would feature the story of two parents who lost their 4-year-old son Joel to cancer. Only a handful of people can truly experience this kind of heartbreak.

Even fewer are capable of writing, speaking, and artistically communicating such a difficult experience. Game developers and parents of Joel, Ryan and Amy Green, shatter every expectation, especially in regards to the story. Their use of symbolism and interactive events are expert-level. Words cannot express this kind of tragedy and Numinous Games is keenly aware of that, which is why the game designs scenes that help players understand the sinking lows and fleeting highs of doing battle with a cancer and a dragon that can’t be defeated.

3. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

Platform: PS4, Xbox One & PC

Release: 2021 Time to beat: 103 hours

If this list was ranking character creation and development, this entry would be top billing with second place a comfortable distance away. Characters aside, the story itself is an unbelievable achievement; a quest to save the entire universe that never misses the forest for the trees.

Individually, each entry of the three entries in the trilogy would qualify as a top ten competitor, but when BioWare combined them all and released them in a single game (a gift to other worthy story-driven games). The plot is so rich that players will sometimes forsake ideal squad combinations so they can hear the companions they build a family with comment as they rescue entire civilizations from demise.

2. Red Dead Redemption 2

Platform: PS4, Xbox One & PC

Release: 2018

Time to beat: 49 hours

Now that those on PC also have the pleasure of experiencing the imaginary Wild West world of Red Dead Redemption 2, there’s no better time to praise its impeccable storytelling.

Despite being an actionpacked game at its core, the gorgeous world and all of its rich details create the setting for perfect stories that are bound to leave no one cold.

Players step into the shoes of Arthur Morgan, who works for the Van der Linde gang along with John Marston. His life is guided by numerous quests, often pitting him against outside forces like other gangs. Again, the player has control over so many of Arthur’s choices, which is what makes this game so beautiful in terms of story.

1. Dragon Age: Origins

Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 & PC

Release: 2009

Time to beat: 86 hours

When it comes to story, nobody can touch the tale that Dragon Age: Origins was able to craft. The game completely altered the landscape of RPGs back in 2009 and has set the golden standard for player choice ever since.

Though one might be tempted to dismiss yet another Tolkeinstyle clone, it’s clear from the first few minutes of playing that BioWare was re-crafting these familiar motifs with unparalleled creativity. The story can be changed in hundreds of meaningful ways, and even the worst of these tales would be the number one ranking on this list.