XIII Winters is the first collection of original & innovative writing on a sport that grips its adherents like few others. Dave Hadfield, the rugby league correspondent of The Independent, admits to being partly inspired by the glut of books dealing with the intensity of the experience of watching football. But rugby league, he believes, produces an even closer relationship between what is happening on the pitch & the lives of those watching. Drawing on his own experiences & commissioning pieces from respected writers on the game, he has assembled a collection which brings the game alive for the reader, whether he has a previous commitment to it or not.