Harper NonFiction acquires Boris Becker’s 'raw and unflinching' new memoir

HarperNonFiction has bought a "raw and unflinching" memoir from tennis legend Boris Becker about his life during and after his prison sentence for hiding £2.5m in assets and loans.

Harper NonFiction publisher Katya Shipster acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for Inside: Winning, Losing, Starting Again from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown and Sonal Vara-Parmar and Ash Parmar at IAM Entertainment. The book will be released on 25th September 2025.

Becker was the youngest Wimbledon men’s singles champion in history when he won the title in 1985. He would go on to win two more Wimbledon Championships, in addition to a brace of Australian Open triumphs and one US Open. Outside of the Grand Slams the former world number one won 43 singles and 15 doubles titles. 

However, Becker had a very public fall from grace in April 2022 when he was convicted of hiding £2.5m in assets from UK government tax authorities and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He would end up serving eight months and was then subsequently deported to Germany. Becker had previously been convicted of tax evasion in German courts in 2002 but that prison sentence was suspended.    

Harper NonFiction said that Inside would offer a "raw and unflinching account of Becker’s life behind bars, from the brutal realities of surviving two of the UK’s toughest prisons, to the friendships and unexpected lessons in resilience that kept him going [...] More than just a story of survival, Inside is a story of profound transformation". 

Becker said: "This book isn’t just my story – it draws from the depth of my experience of resilience, redemption, stoicism and the power of starting over. For the first time, I’m sharing my truth, unfiltered, unmasked and in my own words."

Shipster added that Inside was a "memoir that transcends the boundaries of sports writing. His brutally honest account of losing absolutely everything, and rebuilding from nothing, profoundly moved everyone who has read it – this book will resonate with readers far beyond the world of tennis. I was gripped from the very opening line". 

Becker’s previous autobiography, The Player, was published in Britain by Transworld in 2004; it sold nearly 33,000 units for £370,000 through Nielsen BookScan UK.