Sportscape tells the story of how sport has been shown by photographers over a period of 100 years, focusing on the beauty and interest of the photographs and what they can tell us about the development of sport.

Many photographs have never been published before and each has been selected to contribute to a fascinating story of social, political and technological development over time, as well as being of interest in its own right. They have been selected from the collection of Allsport, the world's leading sports photographic agency, and the historic Hulton Getty Archive. Through this fascinating, surprising and beautiful selection, the momentum of the pictures give the book a dynamic thrust: from amateurism to professionalism, from wide views to tight focus, from black-and-white to colour, from local to international...everything getting faster and brighter and more dynamic as the century progresses.

Director of The Photographers' Gallery in London, Paul Wombell's curatorial skills are at the core of the book. Sports columnist for The Times and Sports Feature Writer of the Year, 1999, Simon Barnes' introduction compellingly discusses the diverse themes that emerge from the pictures to draw fascinating comparisons between photographs and events separated by entire decades.