Tom Palmer

He wasn’t much of a reader when he was younger. His mother was worried about him because he had been struggling at school. She encouraged him to read about football in books, newspapers, and magazines.

The best place to start is the Football Detective series, the earliest of Tom Palmer's multi-book series: it opens with Foul Play (2008) and runs to 3 books across 2008–2010, ending with Killer Pass (2010). Tom Palmer's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Tom Palmer has 176 books catalogued in this guide, published between 2002 and 2024. 166 of them belong to 11 named series — the largest being the Collins Big Cat Progress series with 72 books — and 10 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Tom Palmer's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Football Detective (2008–2010, 3 books), Football Academy (2009–2017, 7 books) and Collins Big Cat Progress (2011–2016, 72 books), plus 8 more.

This guide splits Tom Palmer's 176 books into 11 named series and 10 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Collins Big Cat Progress (72 books, 2011–2016); Star Wars Legends Epic Collection (57 books, 2015–2024); Football Academy (7 books, 2009–2017); Roy Of The Rovers (7 books, 2018–2021); Conkers (6 books, 2019–2022), plus 6 further series.