Berkshire is known for its unique global sports publications so we’re delighted to have produced the first serious reference work on a fascinating new phenomenon in sport, the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports—the latest in Berkshire’s global sports titles, which include the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport and the International Encyclopedia of Women and Sport. An international team of scholars, led by award-winning historian Douglas Booth and his colleague Holly Thorpe of the University of Waikato in New Zealand, provide rich insights into the physical, cultural, historic, and economic aspects of this new type of recreation—and entertainment.

It’s quite splendid looking, as you can see, and we’re eagerly awaiting the first reviews. We’ve had some fun with responses to our page design and the “extreme numbering,” which you can see on our blog. Stay tuned for news about new Berkshire sports projects, which we suspect will include a reference on women and the Olympics. And we’re going to be publishing Beijing 2008: Sports in the Middle Kingdom, edited by FAN Hong, University of Cork, a guide to the Beijing Olympics. This book is being developed in collaboration with Chinese experts and we expect to see it appear in various languages.