JUST WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE TOP?

What is the magic spark that sees David Beckham and Tiger Woods soar above all their competitors, and could the secret lie in the practice regime of Mozart? Matthew Syed's dazzling investigation of high achievement draws on the stories of sports stars and the most up-to-date science to uncover the surprising factors that lead to world beating success. Along the way he explains why the most successful figure skaters are those that have fallen over the most, how a Hungarian father turned his daughters into three of the best chess players the world has ever seen, and why one small street in Reading - Matthew's own - produced more top table tennis players than the rest of Britain put together. Bounce will revolutionise our ideas of what it takes to get to the top.

About the Author

Matthew Syed is an award-winning journalist on the times, writing for both the sports pages and the comment pages.

He is a three-time Commonwealth table-tennis champion and competed in two Olympics.

He studied PPE at Balliol College Oxford where he was awarded a prize-winning first class degree.