A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

A. J. Liebling, born in Manhattan in 1904, joined the staff of the New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine throughout his lifetime, on subjects ranging from food to boxing and France to horse racing. As a war correspondent during the Second World War, he reported from France, England and Algeria, and participated in the Normandy landings. In later life he married the writer Jean Stafford, his third wife. He died in 1963.

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Rosen is an author of YA fantasy novels and is an ambassador for Wattpad, known as @agatharoza. Entwined is her first novel.

A. J. Rosen

A. K. Davidson

A. O. Scott has been a film critic at the New York Times since 2000. His writing has appeared in many other publications, including the New York Review of Books, Slate, the New Yorker and the Nation. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2010, Scott is currently Distinguished Professor of Film Criticism at Wesleyan University. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
@aoscott

A. O. Scott

A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children’s Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

A. S. Byatt

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

A. T. Williams

A. W. Chase

Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by the Guardian newspaper, and ‘the real thing’ by the Washington Post, A.C. 'Ava' Glass is the CWA Dagger-shortlisted author of Alias Emma (The Chase), The Traitor and The Trap. The Traitor was a 2023 Richard and Judy Bookclub pick. Alias Emma was a Barnes and Noble book of the month. A former crime reporter and communications consultant, for five years Ava worked closely with spies. Her time in that world fascinated her, and the people she met back then inspire every book she writes.

A.C. Glass

A.E. Housman

Arthur Edward Waite was the designer and co-creator of the now famous Rider Waite Tarot deck. 
 
An American-born British poet and scholarly mystic, his strong interest in all esoteric matters - divination, magic, Kabbalism, alchemy and Freemasony - led to him penning a number of books. These include the Key to the Tarot, The Book of Ceremonial Magic and A New Encyclopedia of Freemasony.

A.E. Waite

A.E. Warren is the author of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series, which consists of Subject Twenty-One, The Hidden Base, The Fourth Species and The Final Rising. 
 
After spending eight years working as a lawyer, she began to write in the evenings and early mornings as a form of escapism from life in a very small cubicle with lots of files. She self-published her first novels in her spare time, which were picked up by Del Rey UK which is the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. 
 
 She is an avid reader, occasional gamer and fair-weather runner. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and hopefully, one day, a wise border terrier named Austen.

A.E. Warren

A.G.D. Maran

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Cronin

A K Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins and Doctor Who figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit award and is in development for a major 8-part TV series by Company Pictures. Her second, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts, came out in February 2016. She's written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish and her short stories have featured in anthologies including Great British Horror and Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

A.K.Benedict

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

A.L. Kennedy

A.M. Ellis is a speculative fiction author and lover of everything steeped in myth and mystery. Her stories often lean into diverse voices, not only in her identity as a Black woman, but in exploring neurodivergence and mental health. A proud introvert and nostalgic gamer, she lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband and three children.

A.M. Ellis

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

A.N. Wilson

A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matcha, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur.

A.T. Emerald

A.W. Priest

A.B.C. Merriman-Labor was a barrister, writer and munitions worker born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. His published works include A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race and The Story of the African Slave in a Nutshell. He also edited two editions of the Handbook of Sierra Leone. He arrived in the UK in 1904 to study law. In 1907, he organised a centenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in Westminster Abbey. He later embarked on an 'entertainment-lecture' tour called Life and Scenes in Britain, travelling across thousands of miles of West, South West and Central Africa, which he expanded on to create Britons Through Negro Spectacles.

ABC Merriman-Labor

AJ Cronin

AJ Molloy

Aabria Iyengar is an American actress and author.

Aabria Iyengar

Aaliya Jaleel is a freelance illustrator, designer, and visual development artist, currently majoring in Animation at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the illustrator of Under My Hijab and Muslim Girls Rise. You can visit her online at www.aaliyamj.com.

Aaliya Jaleel

Aaron Allston

After more than fifteen years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick has taken the amazing insights from psychology and psychotherapy out of the consultation room and made them accessible to the wider world. 
 
He has been an ‘agony uncle’ for many years for both CBBC and BBC Radio 1, as well as on television, including BBC Worldwide, BBC 3 and BBC Learning.

Aaron Balick

Aaron Carroll

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John Quinn

Years of tradition crashed around the ears of Celtic supporters when the Jungle was demolished and replaced by seating to conform with the Taylor Report. It might never have been the most attractive setting in which to watch football but to the fans who occupied the gentle slopes under the covered North Enclosure it was as familiar as their own living-room. To them it was the nerve-centre of all that was good about their team and about Scottish football in general. There they had gathered to witness the great dramas unfold, the star players weave their artistry, and there they experienced the nerve-jangling, magical nights as Celtic joined the ranks of great European sides in the 1960s. 
 
John Quinn spent months interviewing the people who shaped the history of the Jungle. Star players past and present describe their favourite memories and the fans themselves recall the scenes indelibly etched in their minds. Jungle Tales is an exercise in pure nostalgia. It is in many ways a book by the fans for the fans as they reminisce over past glories and long for the days when they will return.

Jungle Tales

Celtic Memories of an Epic Stand

John Williams

After a decade in football wilderness, weighed down by the legacy of unmatched domestic and European successes in the 1970s and ’80s, Liverpool Football Club – under new French coach Gérard Houllier and forward-looking chief executive, Rick Parry – face up to the huge challenge of building a new team and a successful modern club at Anfield fit for the twenty-first century. 
 
But change is never easy and a rough ride lies ahead. Hard-headed and controversial, Houllier and his policies are proving contentious: changing the dressing-room culture which has been central to the club’s earlier successes and his policy of player rotation, to name just two. So how does this new coaching guru, with a strong personal attachment to both the city and the club, see the future of the game and Liverpool’s place in it? And do the fans of the club – its lifeblood – share Houllier’s vision of a borderless international football squad and a more pragmatic, less flamboyant approach to playing the modern game? 
 
Into the Red charts the place of football in the city of Liverpool, along with some of the reasons for the club’s dramatic fall from grace. It also reports on the extraordinary ‘revival’ season for Liverpool FC in 2000–01 as the club battled, uniquely, in Europe and at home for honours across four different fronts, and on season 2001–02, a dramatic one for Houllier in particular. It includes comment from some of the key protagonists at Anfield as Liverpool FC begins to build, on and off the pitch, an exciting new footballing era for the club, dragging it into the new millennium and ultimately challenging the great football epochs of the team’s history under legends such as Shankly, Paisley and Fagan.

Into the Red

Liverpool FC and the Changing Face of English Football

Richard Lewis

Bobby Moore lifting the World Cup at Wembley on a July afternoon in 1966. England had triumphed against West Germany thanks to a hat-trick by Geoff Hurst and a goal by Martin Peters. All three heroic players were from West Ham, the most famous club of London's East End. This is an area synonymous with football success worldwide, largely because of the legendary Sunday football Mecca of Hackney Marshes. There are more football pitches on this one expanse of grass than in any other part of Europe, and it is a training ground which, over the last 35 years, has developed star after star for English football. 
 
The majority of clubs in the country today have at least one player on their books who has links with the east of the capital. The famous names from the past include Jimmy Greaves, Terry Venables and Harry Redknapp, and the tradition has been carried on by Paul Ince, Ashley Cole and the finest modern-day footballing hero of them all, David Beckham. 
 
With profiles of famous players past and present and engrossing details of the life and characters of the East End, England's Eastenders celebrates a tradition of excellence that began in the swinging Sixties and moves through the decades to show how the precedent set by Moore when he walked up those 39 steps at Wembley was just a stop-off point in the history of this breeding ground of brilliance.

England's Eastenders

From Bobby Moore to David Beckham

Martin Hannan

Some football derbies around the world might have bigger crowds and feature more fanatical fans, but no fixture has as long and passionate a history as the Old Firm derby. For more than 120 years, Glasgow has been divided between the green of Celtic and the blue of Rangers. The first official match ever played by Celtic was a 5-2 win over Rangers in 1888. Since then, the Old Firm derby has grown in stature to be acknowledged as one of the great clashes of football. 
 
Concentrating on the twenty greatest Old Firm matches from the perspective of Celtic Football Club, renowned sportswriter Martin Hannan puts these games in context, showing how the two clubs became such massive rivals and why the Old Firm derby became and remains by far the biggest match in Scottish club football. 
 
With exclusive reflections from a number of Celtic managers and players past and present, Hail! Hail! covers all of the magical matches, such as the titanic, league-winning 4-2 match in 1979, the amazing 6-2 win in 2000 and, of course, the famous 7-1 victory in the 1957 League Cup final, which remains the Parkhead club's biggest win over Rangers. 
 
Highly entertaining and informative, Hail! Hail! is a must-read for supporters of Celtic, football fans in general and anyone who wonders what all the fuss over the Old Firm is about.

Hail! Hail!

Classic Celtic Old Firm Clashes

Eddie Turnbull

As the first British player to score a goal in European club competition in 1955, Hibs hero Eddie Turnbull holds a unique place in footballing history. In Eddie Turnbull: Having a Ball, he charts his extraordinary career and tells the story of his eventful life so far. 
 
Turnbull explains how he became one-fifth of the most celebrated forward line ever to grace Scottish football - the Famous Five of Hibernian FC - and reveals how he had to wait until he was eighty-two to be awarded his first international 'cap', despite having played for Scotland nine times throughout the forties and fifties. 
 
After his playing career ended, Turnbull achieved lasting fame as manager of Aberdeen and his beloved Hibs. 'Turnbull's Tornadoes' beat Jock Stein's Celtic side to lift the Scottish League in season 1972-73 and won the Drybrough Cup twice, in 1972 and 1973. During his decade with Hibs, Turnbull also managed George Best, and here he tells all about his turbulent time with the late great legend. 
 
In this engrossing memoir, Turnbull candidly explains why he walked away from football in 1980, recounts many entertaining behind-the-scenes stories and gives his diagnoses of the ills of the modern game.

Having a Ball

Colin Ward

All Quiet on the Hooligan Front is a compelling exploration into the changing face of football. Covering the years just prior to the Hillsborough disaster up to the present day, it shows how the mood of English football has changed dramatically since the era of hooliganism described in its predecessor, the hugely successful Steaming In. 
 
The book revolves around the author’s travels and gives a vivid portrayal of the fun that fans have when supporting their team. It looks at how football has changed now that the terraces have gone, and gives an insight into how members of the press often distort the truth about the game in order to sell more papers. The book emphasises the importance now assigned to marketing within football and, on a darker note, looks at the advent of the drugs culture amongst fans. 
 
 All Quiet on the Hooligan Front chronicles all of the changes which have occurred in the game post-Hillsborough, and leaves it for the reader to decide whether these have been good or bad for the beautiful game.

All Quiet on the Hooligan Front

Eight Years that Shook Football

Mario Risoli

As a young striker with Third Division club Swansea Town in the ’60s, Giorgio Chinaglia stole milk bottles from the doorsteps of local terraced houses because he couldn’t afford breakfast. Nine years later, as Lazio’s star centre-forward, Chinaglia owned apartments in Rome, a villa, a tennis club and a boat. With an annual salary of £85,000, this son of a Cardiff restaurateur was one of the world’s highest-paid footballers. 
 
Arrivederci Swansea is the remarkable rags to riches tale of one of football's original 'bad boys'. Chinaglia was given a free transfer by Swansea in 1966 because the coaching staff considered him too lazy and disliked his attitude. Chinaglia returned to his native Italy to rebuild his ailing career. He joined Roman side Lazio in 1969. There, in the awesome Olympic Stadium, Chinaglia became the idol of the Lazio tifosi. In 1974, he finished as Seria A top scorer with 24 goals and helped Lazio to their first league title. He also played for Italy in the 1974 World Cup and, on being substituted, caused outrage by making gestures at the Italian bench before storming off the pitch. After Lazio he played alongside Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer at New York Cosmos. After retiring from playing, Chinaglia became a football pundit on Italian television and radio until his death from a heart attack on 1 April 2012.

Arrivederci Swansea

The Giorgio Chinaglia Story

Charlie Woods

Bikie lays bare the true heart of cycling. Every grass-roots enthusiast, keen racing man and elite professional has one thing in common: he loves his bike and riding it. 
 
 The author pinpoints the source of his love, tracing its development in the individual, how it draws people into a community and then a tradition – creating a whole worldwide culture to celebrate that deep affection for what is a technological marvel and transcendent experience. 
 
 Great champions, too, are inseparable from their bikes. They merge into them, becoming a composite image, figures of myth. 
 
 As well as exerting an emotional hold, cycling, in its famous races, also mounts a living proof of exemplary virtues: courage, perseverance and self-sacrifice – gives us, in fact, a glimpse of the higher reaches of the human spirit. There is a sense of this mythical realm in every pedal turn, for once astride a handbuilt lightweight we are put in touch with the greatest riders of all time. 
 
Bikie is the story of one man’s passionate involvement, but in its forthright sincerity it goes to the roots of what we all share.

Bikie

A Love Affair with the Racing Bicycle

Graham Weaver

From the all-conquering side of the 1930s to the Double-winning teams of 1971, 1998 and 2002, Arsenal Football Club have been one of the major forces in English football. 
 
Graham Weaver plots the club's progress from their first silverware in 1930 to the present day through the 14 most significant games in Arsenal's history, both domestically and in Europe. The club's greatest triumphs, such as Anfield in 1989, Copenhagen in 1994 and Old Trafford in 2002, are covered, with a thorough description of the players and their strengths and weaknesses, a full background to each game and details of the match itself, together with quotes and contributions from those who took part. 
 
This book is a must for those who remember fondly the cup final wins, Championship deciders and European successes of Arsenal's distant and recent past, or for those who wish to learn more about the history of London's premier club.

Gunners' Glory

14 Milestones in Arsenal's History

‘Whenever I look at him, it is as though the Messiah has returned.’ That's how Jimmy Murphy, manager of Wales’ 1958 World Cup side, described John Charles. In Italy, where he played for Juventus and Roma, Charles was known as Il Gigante Buono – the Gentle Giant – because of his placid temperament. 
 
One of the greatest footballers Britain has ever produced, Charles left his native Swansea at 16 to join Leeds United, where his phenomenal strike rate helped the club reach the First Division for the first time in its history. His goal-scoring exploits at Ellan Road then attracted the attention of Juventus, who paid a British record of £65,000 to take him to Turin in 1957. Charles went on to score an incredible 105 goals in 178 appearances for I Bianconeri – the Black and Whites – and helped them to win three Series A titles in five years. 
 
 In contrast to his humble upbringing in South Wales, he enjoyed a glamorous lifestyle in Italy. However, it was not all glory. A disasterous return to Leeds United in 1962 was followed by a spell at Roma, where he struggled to recapture his past form. The man who was treated as a god in Turin wound down his playing career with Cardiff City before turning to management in the Southern League. 
 
 This detailed and engrossing biography contains candid interviews with former teammates and family members and follows Charles’ life after football, detailing his failed business ventures and his brave fight against cancer.

John Charles

Gentle Giant

Paul Smith

The start of the 2011–12 season should have marked the dawn of a bold and brave era for Rangers Football Club, as new owner Craig Whyte accepted the keys to Ibrox from Sir David Murray. But football became a sideshow during Whyte’s first campaign as tax rows, court action and the plunge into administration hogged the headlines in one of the most dramatic seasons Rangers have ever seen. 
 
With unique insights from those inside the game and within the club during its darkest hours, For Richer, For Poorer charts the tumultuous tenure of Whyte, examines in detail David Murray’s own time in the owner’s chair and puts the Charles Green bid for control in the spotlight. 
 
 Murray took a white-knuckle ride on football’s roller-coaster. He savoured the thrills of unbeatable highs, leading the club to the famous nine in-a-row sequence of championships, and suffered agonising lows as the world’s financial markets crashed and the club struggled to cope with mounting debts. The colourful businessman also changed the face of Scottish football, breaking down religious barriers and spending millions to attract world-class stars. 
 
 Whyte spoke of grand plans to restore stability to the club, but ultimately became the man who led Rangers into the hands of the administrators. 
 
Green was the man chosen to repair the damage and put a proud institution back on track, charged with opening a new chapter in the club's rich history. 
 
 For Richer, For Poorer puts events at Ibrox under the microscope to reveal the untold story of an incredible period in Rangers history.

For Richer, For Poorer

Rangers: The Fight for Survival

Andrew Mourant

Don Revie was the football man about whom few were neutral. The Leeds United team he created was possibly the finest in the history of English league football, one of legendary endurance, it characters strong and unyeilding. Yet is remained unpopular, for many felt its voracious pursuit of honours was hallmarked by cynicism and ruthlessness. 
 
This fascinating study of Revie, one of English football's most complex and controversial figures, examines the factors and influences that moulded him. In interviews with team-mates, the footballers he managed and others who worked alongside him, Andrew Mourant reflects on the many seemingly paradoxical aspects of Revie's nature. 
 
After depicting Revie's childhood living on the breadline in Middlesbrough, from which the game was his great escape, Mourant traces his development through playing days with five league clubs to management of Leeds United, England and beyond. He also considers the legacy Revie left Leeds: a craving for a return to the days of glory and triumph he engineered. 
 
It is a turbulent story of success and failure. The tragic nature of Revie's untimely death in 1989 through motor neurone disease served only to sharpen memories of his achievements. He continues to cast a shadow over Elland Road and remains the yardstick against whom all successors are judged. Amid the triumphs, near misses and traumas, his reign brought Leeds United an era of unparalleled prosperity and stability. 
 
The story of Revie's career is one of intense dedication, willpower and pursuit of the near impossible. For some it was an inspiration; while for others its darker elements tainted the success he brought to Elland Road and all he strove to achieve for England.

Don Revie

Portrait of a Footballing Enigma

Geoffrey Beattie

Ben Beattie

Geoffrey Beattie is an extremely successful academic and celebrity psychologist. He was perhaps a less successful father. His obsession with his career and his driving passion for running when he was at home almost destroyed his relationship with his son, but, ironically, it is running that has brought them back together. 
 
Chasing Lost Times is the emotional story of a father and son trying to repair a relationship through a shared activity that depends on sheer physical effort, the kind of physical effort that may once have been the source of commonality between father and son in all previous generations but which seems to be absent in the modern world.

Chasing Lost Times

A Father and Son Reconciled Through Running

Jeff Connor

In 1987, a British-based team competed in the Tour de France for the first time in almost two decades. The ANC-Halfords squad were decimated by the punishing pace, the manager walked out during one of the Alpine stages, five of the nine riders and some of the staff never made it to Paris, and most of the personnel went unpaid. ANC were the definitive innocents abroad and it became one of the great sporting misadventures of all time. 
 
If that wasn't bad enough for ANC, a tabloid journalist travelled with them for the full three weeks. Jeff Connor's account of the Tour, Wide-Eyed and Legless, became a classic and was later voted number one in Cycle Sport's list of the best cycling books of all time. 
 
Now, 25 years on, Connor revisits the scene of the crime, tracks down the participants and discovers exactly how their fortunes were changed, some irrevocably, by the '87 Tour. Field of Fire tells a moving tale of sporting disillusionment, heartbreak, anger - and humour.

Field of Fire

The Tour de France of '87 and the Rise and Fall of ANC-Halfords

Huw Richards

'The Bounce of the Century' they called it. A ball kicked across Cardiff Arms Park in the dying minutes of a match between two of international rugby's fiercest rivals. The world's two greatest wingers waited as it bounced towards them, knowing that whoever caught the ball would score and win the match for his country. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks tells what happened when Wales played New Zealand in 1953. The story is written from contemporary accounts and the memories of the men who played that day, including Bob Stuart and Bleddyn Williams, for many of whom the match was the highlight of a career. 
 
The book retells the stories of the two teams and the men who played for them, and charts the events of their lives: how they got to that meeting point in Cardiff in December 1953 and what has happened to them in the half-century since. 
 
Dragons and All Blacks examines the remarkable relationship between two countries on opposite sides of the world, brought together by a mutual passion for rugby with few parallels elsewhere. It shows how their rivalry has developed over a century - from perhaps the greatest of all rugby matches in 1905 to the single-point thriller of 2004 - and looks to its future in the aftermath of the 2005 Welsh Grand Slam and Lions tour of New Zealand.

Dragons and All Blacks

Wales v. New Zealand - 1953 and a Century of Rivalry

Paul Rees

In the glory years of the 1970s, Wales won three grand slams in eight seasons. But rarely since then had the men in red started a Six Nations campaign armed with expectation rather than hope. 2012 was different. 
 
 The previous year they had come within a kick of reaching the World Cup final, losing by a point to France despite playing for the last hour with 14 men after their captain, Sam Warburton, had been sent off for a dangerous tackle. 
 
 The question when they returned home was how they would cope with the heartache. The answer came in their first match in the 2012 Six Nations Championship. In Dublin against Ireland, the team they had knocked out in the World Cup quarter-final, revenge was on the menu. Wales went there without five of their leading forwards and lost Warburton to injury at half-time. They were trailing by six points with five minutes to go and had a player in the sin-bin. The old Wales would have folded but, as in Life on Mars, it was back to the spirit of the 1970s. 
 
This Wales team came back fighting to win not only the game but to sweep the board in the whole tournament, bringing home a Welsh grand slam for the third time in eight years and establishing a strong and exciting team for the future.

The Welsh Grand Slam 2012

How Wales Won the Six Nations Championship

John Scally

Based on exclusive interviews with 40 celebrated players, past and present, Legends of Irish Rugby is a veritable who's who of the sport. 
 
Immortals such as Jack Kyle, Willie John McBride, Tony Ward, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and Paul O'Connell bare their souls to reveal themselves as men of vision, passion and dedication - men who, through their glories, disappointments and dramatic deeds, have inspired others to realise their dreams. 
 
In this engrossing and entertaining account of the bittersweet history of Irish rugby, these powerful personalities offer startling insights into some of the sport's most controversial moments - from the assault on Ronan O'Gara during the 2001 Lions tour to Gary Ella's tenure as Leinster coach. They also express their opinions on the most important issues facing the game today - from Brian O'Driscoll's hair to the role of the coach and the future of the sport itself. Their take on the times is often as comical as it is insightful. 
 
Compelling, informative and humorous, Legends of Irish Rugby is by far the most revealing volume yet on one of the country's favourite sports.

Legends of Irish Rugby

Forty Golden Greats

David Tossell

A coach transported to the field in a hearse as he played dead. An English manager taken at gunpoint to an Argentinian jail after trying to sign that country's World Cup captain. The hero of 1966 who talked his team out of going on strike on the eve of a title decider. All are part of the British professionals' story of life in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s and early '80s, when star turn and unsung journeyman alike had the chance to play alongside Pelé, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Eusebio in the greatest galaxy of world stars ever assembled in one league. Playing for Uncle Sam recalls the British players and coaches who were part of an organisation that changed the face of football with its shoot-outs, offside rule and wacky marketing methods. 
 
It began with Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers spending a bizarre summer posing as the Cleveland Stokers and Los Angeles Wolves in 1967. The late '70s saw the NASL, run by a former Welsh international, reach its peak, drawing crowds of 70,000 and featuring names like Banks, Moore, Hurst and Ball. Rodney Marsh pitched his tent in America by declaring famously that English football had become a grey game, while George Best used the NASL as an escape from the fishbowl of his life in Britain. Typically, the pair delighted and exasperated teammates and coaches in equal measure. 
 
Through approximately 60 interviews with members of the British contingent who accepted the offer of the Yankee dollar, Playing for Uncle Sam recalls one of the most fascinating episodes in football history: the remarkable rise and chaotic collapse of the NASL.

Playing for Uncle Sam

The Brits' Story of the North American Soccer League

Foreword By Bob Wilson.

In the summer of 1970, England was buzzing about the new football season. More than 30 million television viewers had watched the previous year's FA Cup final and the brilliant Brazilians had dazzled audiences during the Mexico World Cup. The new age of televised highlights meant that football's profile had never been greater, generating a new celebrity status for footballers and catapulting them into the limelight like never before. 
 
The 1970-71 season did not disappoint as Arsenal achieved the first Double of football's televised era amid controversy and drama. The Football League and FA Cup were won at the end of a campaign that included a street fight in Rome, the emergence of new young stars and unrest and unhappiness among some of the older players. Seventy-One Guns includes extensive interviews with the Arsenal players and coaches and, through their memories, ancedote and opinions, recreates the drama of that memorable season. 
 
Looking beyond Highbury's Marble Hall, the book also recounts some of the events that made 1970-71 a historic time in English football in general, including: the rise of Leeds under Don Revie; the demise of Manchester United and the problems of George Best; football's attempt to clamp down on the hard men; and troubled times for Alf Ramsey's England in the wake of the Mexico World Cup. 
 
Seventy-One Guns is a must for all Arsenal fans and all those who fondly recall the days of mutton-chop sideburns, white boots and mud-heap pitches.

Seventy-One Guns

The Year of the First Arsenal Double

Becky Tallentire

Do you still curse yourself over the day you met your hero; when instead of asking him the one question that's been nagging you for years, you couldn't utter a word because you were suddenly (and uncharacteristically) struck dumb? Well, curse no more. Still Talking Blue is a unique collection of interviews that will answer everything you wanted to know about your Everton heroes and with none of the unnecessary waffle - because it only asks the relevant questions, as submitted by the fans. 
 
Collated via the Internet, disenfranchised Evertonions scattered across the globe proudly display their astounding recall of bygone events and trivia. From Iceland to South Africa, Australia to Israel, long-suffering Bluenoses are finally given the opportunity to ask questions of their heroes and they do so with panache. 
 
The book contains in-depth interviews spanning the decades from the '50s, when shorts were long and Dave Hickson's quiff was the envy of Hollywood, right through to Dave Watson's final days at the club. Join us as we endeavour to track down John Bailey's 'big hat' and Gordon West's handbag, and move seamlessly on to more pressing topics such as Kevin Ratcliffe's biggest regret, Mick Lyon's worst injury and Alan Harper's favourite goal. 
 
So, if you lie awake at night wondering just what went wrong in the '68 Cup Final, whether Jimmy Gabriel still has his white trench coat, if Barry Horne really does like The Cocteau Twins or how Dave Hickson has managed to hang on to his hair, then unfurrow your brow because the answers all lie within these pages. 
 
No Evertonion should be expected to survive without this book.

Still Talking Blue

A Collection of Candid Interviews with Everton Heroes

Ken Gorman

Ken Gorman has gathered together a superb collection of fight reports, personal testimonies and reminiscences from some of the greatest boxers the world has ever seen. Spanning over four decades, this book features forty breathtaking encounters. Was there ever a more stunning victory than that of Steve Robinson, who won a world title with only two days' notice? Was anything more astonishing than the triumph of Lloyd Honeyghan, or more shocking than the punch from hell that made the world aware of the potent threat of Lennox Lewis? What about that incredible first round when Marvin Hagler met Tommy Hearns in Las Vegas, or the awesome raw power displayed in the famous Rumble in the Jungle?

My Greatest Fight

Rugby is not a game for those who think that centres are what you find in a box of Black Magic or who confuse Jonah Lomu with Joanna Lumley. At the same time, it is not a game for the bright: what kind of tortured mind would invent an oval ball? Of course, it helps if you know the rules and don't have any fear. In this respect you are in the same boat as most referees, particularly if you have a problem with your eyesight. 
 
Odd-Shaped Balls captures the humour, the agony and the ecstasy of one of the world's most popular sports. It snoops inside sweaty, smelly dressing-rooms, reveals the passions of coaches and fans - without whom rugby would cease to exist - and delves deep into the sport's archives to recall its heroes, villains and victims, all of whom are part of the daily currency. 
 
The book is no less than a who's who of the game, with both old and young getting the opportunity to have their say. Lining out is a cast of mischief-makers, miscreants and mad-hatters: from Max Boyce to Keith Wood; from Sean Fitzpatrick to Austin Healy; from Bill Beaumont and his streaker to Gavin Hastings; from Gareth Edwards to David Campese; and from the man in the scrum to the man at the bar. All exponents of surrealism, comic genius and savage wit, they offer a quirky insight into the sporting psyche as well as providing some riotous good laughs. 
 
With hundreds of funny stories, Odd-Shaped Balls is a light-hearted romp through decades of rugby tomfoolery that is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of all sports fans.

Odd-Shaped Balls

Mischief-Makers, Miscreants and Mad-Hatters Of Rugby

Pete May

Many feared that West Ham would fade and die during the 2001-2002 season. Former gaffer Harry Redknapp had been sacked in mysterious circumstances and would never again exclaim that a Hammers side is 'down to the bare bones'. Meanwhile, Glenn Roeder - the man who was initially told not even to apply for the job - admitted to feeling like a 100-1 outsider who had won the Grand National upon being handed the job no one else would take. Young England stars Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard had been sold for 30 million and Leeds fans greeted the appearance of the massive new Dr. Martens stand with a refrain of 'Is that the Rio stand?' Furthermore, the bookies had West Ham down as certainties for relegation and there was universal bemusement at West Ham's appointment of a rookie Premiership manager. Pete May has supported the Hammers ever since he heard cries from the Chicken Run of 'Come on Hammers really pep it up and make it mediocre!' and 'Remember goals, West Ham? They were big in the Seventies!' He offers a supporters' view of Glenn Roeder's crucial first season, while also reminiscing about some of the funniest moments in Hammers' history.

West Ham

Irons in the Soul

Malcolm Allison is one of the most controversial figures of the last half-century of English football. Leader of the famed 'West Ham Academy', his playing career was cut short by the loss of a lung to tuberculosis. Disillusioned, he became a professional gambler before acknowledging that football was his calling. After humble beginnings as a coach, he began a celebrated partnership with Joe Mercer, turning Manchester City into one of the most stylish teams English football has produced. 
 
 Along with the trophies came the birth of Big Mal, the larger-than-life personality who helped revolutionise televised football. He became instantly recognisable for his cigar and Fedora, and equally notorious for a string of affairs with beautiful women. 
 
 As the dark side of Big Mal took over, he was banned for life from the touchlines, became embroiled in a series of boardroom battles and spent time in police cells and rehabilitation clinics fighting the effects of alcoholism. Yet despite the often-destructive effect of his Big Mal persona, Malcolm Allison retains his status as one of the most incisive minds to have graced the game. This book tells both sides of the story, tracing the life and times of one of the most charismatic characters in British sport.

Big Mal

The High Life and Hard Times of Malcolm Allison, Football Legend

David Walmsley

Look for a Lions legend and the chances are you will find an Irishman. Throughout the touring team's history, the heroes of Irish rugby have been at the heart of the Lions' finest hours - on and off the pitch. 
 
 Look at the Lions record books and you will find Irishmen at the top of almost every list, from Willie John McBride and Tony O'Reilly to Ronnie Dawson. No nation has provided more leaders of the Lions. 
 
 In Lions of Ireland, these greats tell their stories of life on some of the longest, hardest roads in sport. Those featured include world-class players and characters who have contributed to Lions folklore, such as Karl Mullen, Jack Kyle, Fergus Slattery, Tom Kiernan, Mike Gibson and Syd Millar - and the account is brought up to date with contributions from the likes of Keith Wood. 
 
 This book includes a complete reference section featuring every Irish player to have represented the Lions in Tests since the first united tour of 1910. It recalls the powerful personalities and relives the most dramatic deeds in the Lions' long history - from the 1971 groundbreaking triumph against the All Blacks and success against the odds in South Africa in 1997 to the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

Lions of Ireland

A Celebration of Irish Rugby Legends

Graeme Sharp

Graeme Sharp is quite simply an Everton legend. Second only to the immortal Dixie Dean as the club's top goalscorer, he netted 159 goals in over 400 appearances for the Toffees. 
 
 Sharp became a Goodison Park hero during the halcyon days of the '80s, when Everton won two League Championships, the FA Cup, the European Cup-Winners' Cup and came within an ace of a historic treble in 1984-85. Partnered first by his boyhood idol Andy Gray and then by England hero Gary Lineker, Sharp established a reputation as one of the finest strikers in the world and notched up 12 caps for his national side, Scotland. 
 
 Although his eventual departure from Everton left a sour taste in his mouth, he continued to score goals for Oldham Athletic before becoming manager of the Lancashire outfit. But off-the-field frustrations blighted his tenure in the hot seat, and a spell as a manager in non-league football brought the curtain down on a magnificent career that ended with triumph for Bangor City in the Welsh Cup. 
 
 In Sharpy: My Story, the former Everton star reveals all: the highs, the lows, the big names, the victories, the disappointments, the heartache, the lot!

Sharpy

My Story

Frank Maloney

Kevin Brennan

From the streets of Peckham to the neon-lit strip of Las Vegas, Frank Maloney's life has been a roller-coaster ride that even he finds hard to believe at times. The Cockney-born son of Irish parents, who once harboured thoughts of becoming a priest, instead went on to manage Lennox Lewis for 12 years and help him become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.In No Baloney, Frank lifts the lid on the world of big-time boxing and its household names, and gives a remarkable account of his time with Lewis, revealing stories and offering opinions that can only come from a true insider. He also gives an insight into the way money, sex, drugs, politics, bribery and corruption have played their part in the sport. But Maloney's story is not just about boxing. It is also about one of life's characters, whose colourful story is told with a brand of humour and emotion that makes it compelling reading. Before settling on a career in boxing, he tried his hand at being a jockey, street trader, chef, pub landlord, cab driver and greengrocer. Along the way there have been girls, fights, a murder investigation and a broken marriage, but through it all there has also been a determination to succeed against the odds. Once dubbed a 'Mental Midget' and 'Pugilistic Pygmy' by Don King, Frank Maloney has gone on to have the last laugh over the flamboyant American promoter and over those who believed he would fail. For, above all, No Baloney is the story of a man who has been lucky enough to experience the kind of life he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams all those years ago in south-east London - and Maloney has made sure he's lived it to the full.

No Baloney

A Journey From Peckham To Las Vegas

Gideon Haigh

The Ashes, the symbol of cricket supremacy between England and Australia, is the game's oldest and fiercest rivalry, still hot to the touch after a century and a quarter. The Book of Ashes Anecdotes collects hundreds of the best stories from more than 260 publications to create the fullest, fieriest and funniest account of these two nations divided by a common game. 
 
 In 2005, and after 16 long years, England's cricketers regained the fabled urn in a series that fascinated and gripped cricket fans as never before. The drama of this contest raised ancitipation about the 2006-07 series to record levels, and Ashes Anecdotes provides an unrivalled collection of the highlights of this celebrated tournament. 
 
 The book includes a foreword by David Frith and extracts from the best cricket writers of the past 124 years. Featured here are the giants of the game, the most memorable Ashes matches, gamesmanship, Bodyline, tales of travel, cricket fever and fan fanaticism, luck and superstition in the game, selection and sledging. It's a book no cricket fan should be without.

The Book of Ashes Anecdotes

Phil Rostron

Leeds United have arguably experienced the most dramatic upheaval in fortunes of any club in the recent history of English football. From their rise to a championship challenge in the Premiership and subsequent participation in the Champions League semi-finals, they plunged to the brink of bankruptcy and were relegated to the Coca-Cola League - for the first time in their proud history. 
 
 Theirs is a story of financial mismanagement on a grand scale. In living the dream, they ran up debts of £100 million, and the dream became a nightmare, not just on the pitch, but also in the tabloids, with the trials of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate. A succession of managers - David O'Leary, Terry Venables, Peter Reid, Kevin Blackwell and Dennis Wise - have come and gone. Following on from the departure of Peter Ridsdale, a succession of businessmen have also tried to steady the ship in the boardroom, culminating in the dramatic purchase of the club by a certain ex-chairman of Chelsea - Ken Bates - in early 2005. 
 
 Under Dennis Wise, an inexperienced team was rejuvenated, with the club overcoming a 15-point penalty imposed by the Football League and pushing for automatic promotion. Sadly, their young manager departed to pastures more lucrative mid-season and the challenge died in yet another play-off defeat under the new regime of former hero Gary McAllister. What lies in store for Leeds United now? Can they regain past glories and taste Premier League football once more? 
 
 Revised and updated, Leeds United: Trials and Tribulations continues the story of Leeds' struggle, with exclusive interviews with many of the club's leading figures during this turbulent period - including Allan Leighton, Peter Ridsdale, Dominic Matteo and Peter Reid.

Leeds United

Trials and Tribulations

Neil Jeffries

Fraser Marr

Most relationships between a fan and a favourite football team go way beyond the casual. Almost always that relationship is a torrid, steamy and passionate love affair. A love affair that rarely lives up to expectations. A love affair that seldom satisfies and, most of the time, just plain hurts. 
 
 So it is for supporters of Leeds United, a club with a big reputation secured in the late 1960s and early '70s, but tarnished in the '80s and rebuilt only partially in the '90s. Come the start of the 1996-97 season, Leeds were a Premiership club on paper, but on the pitch looked far from it. The supporters groaned and the new board acted swiftly, manager Howard Wilkinson being replaced by the once disgraced George Graham. The football world watched as the former Arsenal supreme sought to rebuild both Leeds and his own reputation. All the club had was time, hope and the love of its fans . . . 
 
 Love Hurts tells the story of some of those fans. It is a diary of one extraordinary season, told and photographed in a uniquely personal way by two men for whom following Leeds is a labour of love requiring hours of motorway travel to matches offering variable amounts of torment and despair, of ecstasy and humour. The book pulls no punches, and points the finger whether the team wins or loses. No quarter is given and no fan of any team who reads is can fail to recognise the joy and pain it contains.

Love Hurts

Motorways, Madness and Leeds United

A Private Thriller

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A Puffin Book

A Ripley Novel

A Slice of the Moon

A Victorian Mystery

A Walk in...

A Women’s Murder Club Thriller

A chef Paul Delamare Mystery

Aberrations

Across the Universe

Actiphons

Adelia Aguilar

Adrian Mole

Adventures in Time

Aftermath

Against War

Age of X

Agent 21

Agent Z

Detective Aidan Waits is a troubled junior detective haunted by his past. Facing an uncertain future, and disconnected from his history, DC Waits and his partner, Detective Inspector Peter 'Sutty' Sutcliffe work on Manchester's streets to uncover the city's worst criminals among the grime of the underworld.

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