Dougie Poynter has been obsessed with dinosaurs ever since visiting the Natural History Museum when he was about three. He is passionate about the natural world and a keen conservationist, working with charities such as WWF and Greenpeace to get harmful products banned and to clean up the planet. 
 
Dougie wrote songs together with Tom Fletcher for years in bands McFly and McBusted; they now write their bestselling Dinosaur that Pooped books in the same way that they write their song lyrics. The books have sold over a million copies!

Dougie Poynter

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Colin MacFarlane

Colin MacFarlane was born in the Gorbals in the 1950s, 20 years after the publication of No Mean City, the classic novel about pre-war life in what was once Glasgow's most deprived district. He lived in the same street as its fictional 'razor king', Johnnie Stark, and subsequently realised that a lot of the old characters represented in the book were still around as late as the 1960s. Men still wore bunnets and played pitch and toss; women still wore headscarves and treated the steamie as their social club. The razor gangs were running amok once again, human waste ran down the tenement stairs, and filth, violence, crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness abounded, just like they did in No Mean City. 
 
 MacFarlane witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme, begun in 1961, was implemented, and, as a street boy, he had a unique insight into a once great community in rapid decline. He witnessed drunken fights, gang battles, police corruption and even the occasional stabbing, slashing and murder. But the Gorbals had another side: one where ordinary hard-working people were trying to survive in what was arguably once the most notorious area in the world. 
 
 In this engrossing new book, MacFarlane reveals what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals.

The Real Gorbals Story

True Tales from Glasgow's Meanest Streets

Eugenie Fraser

The House by the Dvina is the riveting story of two families separated in culture and geography but bound together by a Russian-Scottish marriage. It includes episodes as romantic and dramatic as any in fiction: the purchase by the author's great-grandfather of a peasant girl with whom he had fallen in love; the desperate sledge journey in the depths of winter made by her grandmother to intercede with Tsar Aleksandr II for her husband; the extraordinary courtship of her parents; and her Scottish granny being caught up in the abortive revolution of 1905. 
 
 Eugenie Fraser herself was brought up in Russia but was taken on visits to Scotland. She marvellously evokes a child's reactions to two totally different environments, sets of customs and family backgrounds, while the characters are beautifully drawn and splendidly memorable. 
 
 With the events of 1914 to 1920 - the war with Germany, the Revolution, the murder of the Tsar and the withdrawal of the Allied Intervention in the north - came the disintegration of Russia and of family life. The stark realities of hunger, deprivation and fear are sharply contrasted with the adventures of childhood. The reader shares the family's suspense and concern about the fates of its members and relives with Eugenie her final escape to Scotland. 
 
 In The House by the Dvina, Eugenie Fraser has vividly and poignantly portrayed a way of life that finally disappeared in violence and tragedy.

The House by the Dvina

A Russian Childhood

Andy Goram

Iain King

This is the story of a genius with flaws. Lots of them. On the field, Andy Goram was a defiant figure between the sticks who, in many ways, defined the history-making nine-in-a-row team that brought so much success to Ibrox; off it, he careered through three divorces and a welter of lurid tabloid headlines sensationalising his hellraising antics. 
 
 In this no-holds-barred account, Goram lifts the lid on his tempestuous life in football, from the Gers' glory days to a fairy-tale chapter with his boyhood heroes: Manchester United. His life in the Old Firm is examined in depth, from the saves that broke former Celtic manager Tommy Burns's heart to a story that was buried until now: Celtic's astonishing bid to sign him. 
 
 Goram's Scotland career ended in bitterness when he walked out on the squad before France 98, and here he smashes the myths that have always surrounded his relationships with Craig Brown and Jim Leighton. 
 
 This is the inside story of the man the fans voted Rangers' greatest-ever goalkeeper. He remains a genius with flaws: a legend simply known as The Goalie.

The Goalie

My Story

Alan J Wilson

Des Brogan

Frank McGrail

Over a hundred gripping tales - of murder and mystery, ghosts and ghouls, body-snatching and witch-burning - reveal the darker side of genteel Edinburgh's history. 
 
 Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories is a highly readable collection, fully illustrated throughout and compiled by the three historians who operate Mercat Tours. Since 1984, thousands of visitors have enjoyed their nightly rounds of the closes and wynds of Edinburgh's Old Town. Now you can read of the macabre exploits of the city's infamous villains - Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare, Major Weir, Agnes Fynnie and a host of others - which bring this ancient city intriguingly to life.

Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh

Simon Low

As a former fighter in the legendary French Foreign Legion, Simon Low thought he had seen it all. Then he was posted to Iraq. Employed as a private military contractor - a 'hired gun' - his assignment was to guard the deadly convoy routes out of Baghdad. 
 
Once there, Simon quickly realised that no one could be trusted, including the US military. Whether sending him on perilously haphazard missions or, in one terrifying incident, knowingly opening fire on him, the Americans often proved as dangerous as the insurgents. 
 
Simon and his staunch 'oppo' Dave faced the daily terror of suicide bombers, armed ambushes and grenade attacks, and also had to keep a close watch on their ill-prepared Iraqi comrades. Incompetence or betrayal from within could be fatal, but a far greater fear was that of capture, with prisoners subjected to torture and slow death. 
 
Commissioned to courier a large quantity of cash through bandit country, Simon lost patience with his high-handed paymasters and devised a plan of his own for the money . . . 
 
The Boys from Baghdad is an action-packed account of life as a soldier of fortune in the most controversial conflict of our age. With grim, earthy humour, Simon's eyewitness descriptions of Iraq as it spirals into bloody chaos provide a unique, uncompromising insight into the theatre of war.

The Boys from Baghdad

From the Foreign Legion to the Killing Fields of Iraq

Steve Bunce

Ray Lester is a fixer in the boxing business. He makes fights happen. He builds a bridge and guides boxers across to the negotiating table. Ray Lester is good at his job. 
 
One morning, a girl arrives at Ray's door and asks him for help finding her father, an old-school Vegas crooner called Eddie Lights. Ray travels with his questions to Sin City, along with 30,000 other Brits with their Union Jacks on the way to watch Hatton take on Mayweather. But the boys in leather jackets from back east are on his tail and Ray finds himself embroiled in a murderous plot. 
 
So begins a journey into the murky world of deals, fights and fighters. A world beyond the glitz, glamour and glory. A world where the fixer is king.

The Fixer

Enid Blyton wrote about the Famous Five - wholesome kids who were always up to some adventure or other - but during the 1960s Glasgow boy Colin MacFarlane had his own gang: the Incredible Gorbals Diehards. These were young boys trying to survive in one of the world's toughest areas, the infamous slums of Glasgow. 
 
 During the gang's daily adventures, they came across a plethora of undesirable characters, including foul-mouthed drunks, thieves, razor-flicking gang members, con men, fly men and street brawlers. Through it all, MacFarlane and his band of brothers retained their sense of humour while roaming the filthy, stench-ridden Gorbals backstreets. 
 
 In the third volume of his acclaimed memoirs, bestselling author Colin MacFarlane reveals what it was like to grow up on the streets of the Gorbals during this period. Be prepared to be shocked and entertained at the adventures of the gang that called themselves the Incredible Gorbals Diehards.

Gorbals Diehards

A Wild Sixties Childhood

Andrew Jeffrey

This is an examination of the part played by Edinburgh and South-East Scotland in World War II. In October 1939 the River Forth was the target of the first air raid on Britain. As well as looking at this battle, this book examines the German military effort against Edinburgh and surrounding communities. As the Forth was a vital port in the war effort, it was heavily garrisoned and fortified. Jeffrey describes plans which were made to counter the threat of invasion. Captain Archibald Ramsay (MP for Peebles and South Midlothian) spent more than four years of the war in Brixton prison, regarded as a pro-fascist. Research reveals that in the years up to 1940, support among influential Scots for Hitler was more widespread than has previously been thought. Documents describe the efforts made by MI5 to ensnare Nazi sympathisers. Edinburgh was also the scene of a secret war, which included the career of Robert Petter, a German spy arrested in Waverley station. The text also covers the strategic deception operations, undertaken to convince the Germans that the allied invasion of Norway was imminent, military training in the area and the social changes brought about by the war.

This Present Emergency

Edinburgh, the River Forth, South East Scotland and the Second World War

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Rudolf Hess's flight to Britain in May 1941 stands out as one of the most intriguing and bizarre episodes of World War II. In this text, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton explodes many of the myths which still surround the affair. He traces the developments which persuaded Hess to undertake his flight without Hitler's knowledge and shows why he chose to approach the Duke of Hamilton. In the process he throws light on the importance of Albrecht Haushofer, one-time envoy to Hitler and Ribbentrop and personal advisor to Hess, who was eventually executed by the S.S. for his involvement in the German Resistance Movement. Drawing on released British War Cabinet papers and the author's access to the Hamilton archives and the Haushofer letters, this book takes the reader to the heart of the Third Reich, combining adventure and intrigue with a scholarly historical approach.

The Truth About Rudolf Hess

David Ewart

May Ewart

Say goodbye to squashed feet, sore toes and dizzy heads with Scottish Ceilidh Dancing. Guiding you through intricate dance steps and various hand holds in simple, straightforward language, this book introduces you to the exuberant world of the Dashing White Sergeant, the Gay Gordons, the Gypsy Tap and the Lucky Seven, to name but a few. All your old favourites are here and, with over fifty dances, there's something for everyone, from the simple routines of the Dinkie One-Step, to the more adventurous Southern Rose Waltz and the Posties Jig.

Scottish Ceilidh Dancing

Jan de Vries

In Emotional Healing, world-renowned alternative-health expert Jan de Vries turns his attention to the myriad of mental and emotional conditions that he has seen increase amongst his patients in recent years. 
 
 This important new addition to the Jan de Vries Healthcare series offers practical advice on how to cope with the emotional effects of unhappy relationships and broken marriages, suggests ways of eradicating depression and suicidal thoughts, reveals how to combat feelings of resentment and jealousy, and advises on how to avoid the health pitfalls linked to modern working life, such as stress and anxiety. 
 
 The book pinpoints effective ways in which to overcome feelings of guilt and trauma that arise from unfortunate situations such as road accidents. It also explores the wealth of complex emotions related to degenerative diseases, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, and offers helpful tips on how to cope at such times. 
 
 Emotional Healing is an essential handbook for those of us who are emotionally and mentally affected by the many pressures of life in the twenty-first century. It will lift spirits and bring some positivity back into the lives of those who may have started to give up hope.

Emotional Healing

Complementary Solutions for a Stress-Free Life

In Neck and Back Problems Jan de Vries deals with many of the most common problems relating to the spine. Drawing on his own vast experience of helping patients overcome their suffering and on various case histories, this book contains practical advice for those millions who endure the agony of backache. Simple exercises and remedies are outlined, together with proven hints towards self-treatment. Slipped discs, tennis elbow, 'whiplash', bursitis and problems with vertigo are all discussed in layman's terms. Neck and Back is a veritable treasure trove of information from one of the world's leading practitioners in this field.

Neck and Back Problems

Jan-Andrew Henderson

Greyfrair's Cemetery in Edinburgh has a centuries old reputation for being haunted. Its gruesome history includes use as a mass prison, headstone removal, witchcraft, bodysnatching, desecration, corpse dumping and live burial. 
 
 In 1998, something new and inexplicable began occurring in the graveyard. Visitors encountered 'cold spots', strange smells and banging noises. They found themselves overcome by nausea, or cut and bruised by something they could not see. Over the space of two years, twenty-four people were knocked unconscious. Homes next to the graveyard wall became plagued by crockery smashing, objects moving and unidentified laughter. Witnesses to these attacks ran into the hundreds. There were two exorcisms of the area. Both failed. 
 
 The section of Greyfriars where the attacks occurred is now chained shut. The entity responsible has been named the 'Mackenzie Poltergeist'. It has become one of the best-documented and most conclusive paranormal cases in history. 
 
 The Poltergeist is still growing stronger. 
 
 This is its story.

The Ghost That Haunted Itself

The Gruesome Ghoul of Edinburgh's Greyfriars Graveyard

William Queen

When veteran law-enforcement officer and lifelong motorcycle lover William Queen penetrated the San Fernando chapter of the notorious Mongols, he was at the mercy of psychopaths who sought to have him prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling and doing drugs to arms trafficking, driving getaway cars and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol 'ol' lady' after a brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend. 
 
Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, Queen came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from his relatives and friends, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenalin-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America.

Under and Alone

Infiltrating the World's Most Violent Motorcycle Gang

Lofty Large

Lofty Large is, quite simply, an SAS legend. 
 
 He joined the army aged 15 in February 1946 and soon saw service in Germany and Hong Kong. By early 1951 the thundering engines of the Empire Orwell were transporting him and hundreds of others towards their first taste of war at the sharp end: Korea. He was wounded in action and captured as a prisoner-of-war by the enemy at the battle of the Imjin River. On his release two years later he was declared 'unfit for further military service'. Lofty Large refused to give up on his military career and defied the odds, passing the SAS selection course and going on to enjoy a long and eventful career with the Special Air Service. 
 
 With that elite group Lofty served all over the world: in the mind-numbing cold, in the blazing desert heat and in sweat-drenched jungle warfare. He faced minefields , traps and ambushes, as well as bombs, bullets, rockets and napalm. He is the first to admit he also experienced a lot of luck, not the kind which wins money in gambling or business but the kind which means, when the smoke clears, that you are the bastard still standing. 
 
 In his introduction to SAS Soldier Against The Odds, Andy McNab says Lofty was a survivor, 'but it's not just about luck. He is too modest to say that it's also about guts, thinking faster than the enemy and being willing to go further than they will to survive. That takes courage and skill." This book shows that Lofty Large, in winning his legendary SAS status, had more than his share of both those attributes.

Soldier Against The Odds

From Korean War to SAS

Bernard O'Mahoney

Bernard O'Mahoney was a key member of the Essex Boys firm - one of the most violent criminal gangs in Britain. In December 1995, the three leaders of the gang were executed as they sat in their Range Rover down a deserted farm track. For many, this meant that the horror of the gang's brutal reign was over. 
 
For Jack Whomes and Michael Steele, the nightmare had just begun. Convicted of the murders on the word of a supergrass, these two men have spent more than a decade in prison for crimes they claim they did not commit. In Bonded by Blood, O'Mahoney goes back to exorcise his ghosts and lay the past to rest. He returns to the scene of the murders and relives the bloody encounters that marked his time as a gang member. 
 
Divided by greed, bonded by the blood of their victims, the Essex Boys' rise to the top of the criminal underworld was as dramatic as their final fall.

Bonded by Blood

Murder and Intrigue in the Essex Ganglands

Martha Long

Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s Dublin, Martha has to be a fighter from the very start. 
 
As her mother moves from man to man, and more children follow, they live hand-to-mouth in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to beg for food. But just when it seems things can't get any worse, her mother meets Jackser. 
 
Despite her trials, Martha is a child with an irrepressible spirit and a wit beyond her years. She tells the story of her early life without an ounce of self-pity and manages to recreate a lost era in which the shadow of the Catholic Church loomed large and if you didn't work, you didn't eat. 
 
Martha never stops believing she is worth more than the hand she has been dealt, and her remarkable voice will remain with you long after you've finished the last line.

Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes

Aged thirteen, Martha is rescued by the courts from the clutches of her evil stepfather, Jackser, and her feckless mother, Sally. After numerous arrests for shoplifting, a judge rules that she is to be sent to a convent school with the instruction that she is to get an education. 
 
 Her initial relief at escaping the abuse and neglect she suffered at home is, however, short-lived, as she soon realises that there are many forms of cruelty in this life. As she says, 'You can have a full belly, but your heart can be very empty.' Ostracised by the other children for being a 'street kid' and put to back-breaking work by the nuns, she leads a lonely existence, her only joy coming from the books she devours and her mischievous sense of humour. 
 
 Desperate for love and a little place where she feels she belongs, despite all that she has suffered Martha retains her compassion for others and still continues to hope for a brighter future when she will be free to make her own way in life.

Ma, I'm Gettin Meself a New Mammy

Reg McKay

Paul Ferris

On Glasgow's meanest streets life started well for the young Paul Ferris. How did he become Glasgow's most feared gangster, deemed a risk to national security? 
 
Arthur Thompson, Godfather of the crime world and senior partner of the Krays, recruited young Ferris as a bagman, debt collector and equaliser. Feared for his capacity for extreme violence, respected for his intelligence, Ferris was the Godfather's heir apparent. But when gang warfare broke, underworld leaders traded in flesh, colluding with their partners - the police. Disgusted, Ferris left the Godfather and stood alone. 
 
They gave him weeks to live. 
 
While Ferris was caged in Barlinnie Prison's segregation unit accused of murdering Thompson's son, Fatboy, his two friends were shot dead the night before the funeral and grotesquely displayed in a car on the cortége's route. Acquitted against all the odds, Ferris moved on, determined to make an honest living. 
 
They would not let him. 
 
The National Crime Squad, MI5, the police and two of the country's most powerful gangsters saw to that. A maximum-security prisoner, Ferris is known as 'Lucky' because he is still alive. 
 
This is one man's unique insight into Britain's crime world and the inextricable web of corruption - a revealing story of official corruption and unholy alliances.

The Ferris Conspiracy

Graham Johnson

'If those pricks want a war, lad, we'll show what some proper soljas can do.' 
 
Dylan, Nogger and their crew 'tax' rival drug dealers using a red-hot steam iron and celebrate by making videos of themselves raping wannabe WAG s. In their world, guns and knives are as common as mobile phones. But when an innocent three-year-old girl is killed in the crossfire, extreme measures are brought in to combat gang warfare. 
 
From burgeoning organised crime to warped celebrity culture, Gang War is an apocalyptic vision of a world in freefall. 
 
The gripping debut novel by the bestselling author of Powder Wars is a mind-blowing tale that is all the more shocking because it is inspired by real-life events.

Gang War

Lew Yates

Everybody in the unlicensed fight game knows that only one man has the honour of being titled 'Guv'nor' - and that man is Lew 'Wild Thing' Yates. Yates began boxing at the age of six, and as an adult he was ruthless in pursuit of his dream of becoming world heavyweight champion. But when his licence was revoked following an assault on a referee, he turned to unlicensed boxing. 
 
 By day, Yates pounded punchbags and the streets in an effort to reach the peak of physical fitness as he prepared for his epic battle with Roy 'Pretty Boy' Shaw. At night, he pounded gangsters and drug dealers foolish enough to take him on in the nightclubs where he worked. 
 
 Wild Thing documents how Yates rose to the top of his bloody profession. When it comes to his fighting ability, he doesn't need to boast, brag or exaggerate. With Lew Yates, what you see is what you hope you're never going to get. This is his remarkable story.

Wild Thing

The True Story of Britain's Rightful Guv'nor

Helen Croydon

Frustrated with her stalled career as a broadcast journalist and uninspired by dating naive and needy guys her own age, Helen Croydon joins a website to seek an older man. She expects it to be just a few fun dates in some fancy bars but finds herself propelled into a world of Prada shopping trips, fine dining, first-class travel and fascinating, powerful men. 
 
 Helen's soul-searching dating adventures take her to New York, Malaysia, highbrow sex parties, top ski resorts and London's finest hotels. When one of her dates alludes to a monthly allowance, she is shocked, but how long will her resistance to the idea last? 
 
 Sugar Daddy Diaries is a confessional true story that questions modern ideals about relationships, examines the attraction of power and asks if money can ever be the currency of love.

Sugar Daddy Diaries

When a Fantasy Became an Obsession

Tim Carroll

The Dodger is the long-awaited story of Johnny Dodge, a wartime hero and a pivotal figure in the escapade immortalised in the legendary Hollywood film The Great Escape. 
 
Of all the Allied prisoners who broke out of Hermann Göring's 'escape proof' camp in the famous episode of March 1944, Johnny Dodge was the most intriguing. American-born Dodge was a cousin by marriage of Winston Churchill. When the Second World War broke out, he volunteered for the Army but was quickly captured after the debacle of Dunkirk. He became a prisoner of war and an inveterate escapologist and troublemaker - eventually becoming one of the ringleaders of the 'Great Escape'. 
 
 Surviving the murderous Gestapo, he was thrown into a VIP compound of Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the orders of Heinrich Himmler - but escaped once more. After recapture, Johnny was spirited away by the SS to a meeting in Berlin with Hitler's interpreter, who sent him on a clandestine mission to his cousin in Downing Street. His odyssey through the dying embers of the Third Reich to Switzerland and freedom in the company of a louche Nazi apparatchik is the last curious escapade in the story of Johnny's adventurous life. 
 
 The Dodger draws upon Dodge's voluminous private papers, including photographs taken inside prison camps and letters home, casting revealing new light on the myth of the Great Escape.

The Dodger

The Extraordinary Story of Churchill's Cousin and the Great Escape

ESSEX BOYS is the brand new edition of the shocking bestseller known as SO THIS IS ECSTASY?. It is the true story of the rise of one of the most violent and successful criminal gangs of the 90's whose reign of terror was finally terminated when the three leaders were brutally murdered in their Range Rover one winter's evening. On their way they had built the drug-dealing organisation that which supplied the pill that killed Leah Betts. They were responsible for a wave of intimidation, beatings and murder. Until, it seems, they took one step too far. Now there is compelling evidence that the men convicted of shooting the dead men are innocent. Which means the real murderers are still at large. Bernard O'Mahoney was a key member of what has been one of the most feared gangs of the decade. His inside account of their cold-blooded violence reveals that facts can be more terryfing than fiction.

Essex Boys

A Terrifying Expose Of The British Drugs Scene

Steven Ellis

Two films and numerous books have attempted to tell the shocking story of two of Britain's most ruthless gangs. For 20 years, the Essex Boys firm and their successors, the New Generation, controlled a lucrative drugs empire in Essex and throughout the south east of England by using intimidation, gratuitous violence and murder. Rampaging through the streets and clubland, they destroyed anything and anybody that dared to get in their way. 
 
 Eventually torn apart by greed and paranoia, the gang members became victims of their own vile trade and hate-filled actions. Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were all blasted repeatedly with a shotgun as they sat in their Range Rover down a remote farm track. Dean Boshell was lured to allotments, then beaten and shot execution-style three times through the head. Others, such as Darren Nicholls and Damon Alvin, turned Super Grass and disappeared into the witness protection scheme never to be seen again, while three other men are in prison serving life sentences. 
 
 Steve `Nipper` Ellis is the last man standing, the only member to have survived the bloody reign of both gangs. In Essex Boy, he tells his shocking story for the first time, and reveals just how close he came to being both murderer and murder victim.

Essex Boy

Last Man Standing

Trouble in Mind is bernard o'mahoney's unblinkingly honest account of his eventful life so far. 
 
 Growing up in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, O'Mahoney regularly bore the brunt of his father's psychotic violence. After a spell in the army, he served two prison sentences for wounding, before moving to Basildon and forming the Essex Boys firm, one of the most successful and violent criminal gangs in British history. 
 
 When O'Mahoney quit the firm, he received death threats from his partners, who were murdered less than a fortnight later. He was arrested in the aftermath of the triple murder but was never charged. 
 
 As he began to distance himself from his shady past, tragedy struck when his young wife died suddenly and, grieving, he spiralled out of control and ended up serving another spell in prison. 
 
 The Essex Boys firm has been the subject of three films and numerous books, but the gang's infamous activities are only one remarkable aspect of O'Mahoney's extraordinary life story, which he candidly recounts in this gripping memoir.

Trouble in Mind

An Autobiography

After a failed suicide attempt and recovery in the mad house, Martha is heading for France to be reunited with the one true love of her life. 
 
Father Ralph Fitzgerald rescued her from the streets when she was sixteen and was the first person to show Martha true love and affection. But their relationship threatened his vocation and he eventually fled to Africa to take up missionary work. 
 
Martha never got over losing him and now, after nearly twenty years, he has made contact again. She sets off on a mission to find him and uncover his motives for getting in touch. Does he still love her? Has he left the priesthood? Is he now free to marry her? She needs to know what the future is going to hold.

Ma, I've Reached for the Moon an I'm Hittin the Stars

Keith Wilkinson

A beautiful island lying in the northern part of the Irish Sea between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the Isle of Man was once a popular holiday destination. It is perhaps better known today for the TT motorcycle races held there, its tailless cats and Manx kippers. However, it also has its darker side. 
 
Manx Murders is a collection of gripping and mysterious murder cases committed on the Island over the last 150 years, from the brutal slaying of a spinster one dark night on a lonely track near Ramsey to the infamous 'Golden Egg Murder' in central Douglas. 
 
The cases that have caused shock and sensation throughout two centuries of the Island's history are recorded here as the author reveals the events behind the last hanging on the Island, a deathbead confession, the harrowing story of a murderous father and the cases that remain unsolved to this day. The Island's political importance as a wartime holding area for prisoners of war is also explored through the account of a bizarre, seemingly motiveless killing in 1916 and the stabbing of a Finnish prisoner during the Second World War. 
 
Using information obtained from newspapers, inquest records and trial transcripts whenever these were available, each murder is described against the backdrop of contemporary events to give the reader a distinct flavour of life at the time of the crime. While each case is unique, all share an overwhelming sadness and tragedy that will never be forgotten.

Manx Murders

150 Years of Island Madness, Mayhem and Manslaughter

Colin Fry

Twins Ron and Reg Kray were without doubt the most powerful, violent and deadly gangsters that London has ever known. They ran protection rackets, clubs and casinos, as well as fraudulent 'long firms'. They blackmailed, intimidated and killed - for many years with impunity thanks to their powerful cronies in the Establishment. Working with all five main Mafia families in New York, they were expanding their business worldwide when they were imprisoned for murder in 1968. 
 
 Featuring revealing new material, The Krays: A Violent Business is the story of their lives - and of the secrets and scandals the British government still doesn't want you to know about.

The Krays: A Violent Business

The Definitive Inside Story of Britain's Most Notorious Brothers in Crime

Billy Cribb

Bare-knuckle fighting without the bull! I haven't been to prison for robbery, I didn't know the Krays and I make no claims to be invincible . . . But my life fighting was the closest to hell I will ever get.'Learn what fuels hatred and makes a once-gentle boy into violent man. Read stories of horrific fighting experiences on the Mafia-controlled extreme fight circuit of New York. Prepare yourself for harrowing descriptions of drug addiction, mindless violence and organised crime. Tarmac Warrior has it all. Billy Cribb was born into a Romani/Jew family and spent most of his childhood travelling. His early years were marred by the racism and bigotry his family endured at the hands of small-minded locals in the villages where they worked. These random attacks planted seeds of anger and hatred in Billy which later manifested in his fighting - for Billy Cribb became one of the greatest bare-knuckle fighters of his generation. Revealing an underground fight scene rarely glimpsed by those on the outside, Tarmac Warrior traces Billy's career from his first fights on the motorways and A roads around Britain onto the cross channel ferries which provided an arena for many of his early fights. It then follows Billy's move to Majorca, giving a frightening insight into what really goes on in this seemingly idyllic Mediterranean island: the timeshare racketeering, extortion and organised crime which lie under the surface of the popular holiday destination.

Tarmac Warrior

The Violent World Of Extreme Fighting

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