Brendan Gallagher

What a fantastic resource for me to have come across on Vine when like many teachers, thoughts are already underway for incorporating the Olympics into lessons. Useful resource for me to refer to. The pictures themselves are worth it if I'd had to buy this book because they just sum up the determination of the athletes involved. 1948 obviously plays a big part of this book, when England last hosted the Olympics and an important one after World War II.

It looks at how the games have changed over the years and provides statistical information about medals and events. There's even information on the different mascots over the years. The chapter that focuses on changing events after Tokyo's games in 1964 where the Olympics began to attract political protests (as in the 1972 games in Munich) is an interesting one to read and was the one I went straight to. Both the paralympic and olympic journeys are integrated in the book rather than two separate entities which is good and overall it is just simply a fantastic reference book for London 2012 and beyond.… (meer)