The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with the Cambridge Boat Race Crew »

Mark de Rond, described by the Financial Times as 'Cambridge's secret weapon for the Boat Race', is an Oxford-educated Cambridge don in his thirties. His work has been featured in Time, the Economist, The Times, The Week, and on BBC Radio 4.

As the Cambridge University Boat Club prepared for the 2007 Boat Race, Mark de Rond - a Cambridge don and fellow of Darwin College - spent a year libing the blood, sweat and tears of the 39 students risking all for a chance to challenge Oxford. The Last Amateurs is de Rond's intense and deeply personal account of freezing early-morning training sessions, booze-fuelled crew 'formals', the tenderness of camaraderie, the pain of self-doubt, and the tantrums and testosterone of crew members, each set on becoming a Cambridge 'Blue'. So what does it take to row in a Boat Race? In this thrilling book, de Rond delves into the depths of what it means to be a man and the primeval desire to compete. Told chronologically and driven by the pursuit of the final victory, the result is a breathtaking portrait of a deeply historical race marked by sharp contrasts - and one in which every sportsperson will recognise at least a little of themselves.