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Anton Rippon is a Derby boy, born and bred. He is also one of the city's best-known writers and personalities, with a string of highly acclaimed books to his name. For the past eight years, he has written a popular weekly column in the Derby Telegraph in which he takes a whimsical, often sideways, look at life in Derby, both the serious side and the frivolous. In the process he captures perfectly the essence of this sturdy Midlands city.Sometimes commenting on current events, sometimes looking at the dafter side of life, often taking a trip down Memory Lane to illustrate a point, Anton has the rare ability to weave a story that both entertains and informs the people of his hometown.Now, in A Derby View, he has drawn together many of those columns, as well as new writing. The result is a book that will delight Derbeians young and old.
This “startlingly good and vividly illuminating book” sheds new light on the Fascist sports spectacle that transfixed the world (The Spectator). For two weeks in August 1936, Nazi Germany achieved an astonishing propaganda coup when it staged the Olympic Games in Berlin. Hiding their anti-Semitism and plans for territorial expansion, the Nazis exploited the Olympic ideal, dazzling visiting spectators and journalists alike with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. In Hitler’s Olympics, Anton Rippon tells the story of those remarkable Games, the first to overtly use the Olympic festival for political purposes. His account, which is illustrated with almost 200 rare photographs of the event, looks at how the rise of the Nazis affected German sportsmen and women in the early 1930s. And it reveals how the rest of the world allowed the Berlin Olympics to go ahead despite the knowledge that Nazi Germany was a police state.
A history of the Gunners told through in-depth biographies of the team’s key players on and off the pitch, from its late 19th century beginnings to today. Arsenal: The Story of a Football Club in 101 Lives tells the history of the team through the biographies of key individuals associated with the club from its formation in the gas-lit days of Victorian Britain through to the present day. From David Danskin, the Scottish mechanical engineer and footballer who was the driving force behind the team raised at Dial Square, a workshop at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, to Arsene Wenger, the longest-serving and most successful manager in Arsenal’s history. The in-depth stories of the characters—players, managers, chairmen—here paint a fascinating picture of how the club—indeed, the game of football itself—has developed from workers playing for fun to today’s multi-million-pound business.
'I was 12th man for England against Wales at Wembley. Within a few minutes, the Welsh half-back broke his collar bone. They had no reserves and I as the only spare player to hand. That's how I made my international debut - for Wales.' - Stan Mortensen, Blackpool and England. When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, football came to an abrupt halt. Large crowds were banned, stadiums were given over to military use, most players joined up. Then it was realised that if victory was the national goal, soccer could help - and football went to war. For the next six years the game became hugely important to Britain. Boosting morale among servicemen, munitions workers and beleaguered citizens alike - and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for war funds. It was a game with plenty of human stories. Some footballers were dubbed 'PT commandos' or 'D-Day dodgers'. Others, however, saw action. Pre-war heroes on the pitch became wartime heroes off it. This book captures the atmosphere of the time and tells the story of a unique period in football's history.
From the Blitz to the Home Guard, these first-person stories stand testament to that indomitable spirit that 'kept us calm and carrying on' through those dark days between 1939 and 1945.
NOMINATED FOR BEST FOOTBALL BOOK OF 2010 IN THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS Updated second edition True greatness does not feel the need to proclaim itself from the rooftops. It is happy to state its case quietly, yet with utter conviction. Alan Gilzean was a truly great footballer. Every observer of his talent confirms this as an indisputable fact: from the legendary Jimmy Greaves, who regards him as the best striker he ever played with, to Don Revie, the former Leeds United and England manager, who described the former Tottenham striker as the best touch player in Europe, and Spurs fans whose spine-tingling refrain, Gilzean, Gilzean, Born is the King of White Hart Lane, continues to echo do...
Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Football explores some of the most bizarre football events throughout history, from its birth during the Industrial Revolution, to the major tournaments of the Beautiful Game in the 21st century. From the player sold for GBP10 and a box of kippers, to unusual injuries on the pitch, this book gathers some of the most curious moments of footballing history, a game that continues to be both an amazing entertainment spectacle and extraordinarily accessible to people everywhere. Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide variety of subjects makes it the perfect book to dip in to. The amazing and extraordinary facts series presents interesting, surprising and little-known facts and stories about a wide range of topics which are guaranteed to inform, absorb and entertain in equal measure.
This portrait of early-WWII British life “nicely weaves together anecdotes and stories of actual individuals that help illustrate the overall experience” (The NYMAS Review). On New Year’s Day 1940, the people of Britain looked back on the first four months of the Second World War with a sort of puzzled unease. Wartime life was nothing like what they’d imagined. Unlike in the First World War, there was no fighting on the Western Front. Indeed, there was no Western Front. There had been no major air attacks. Four days into the war German bombers had approached the East Coast, but no bombs were dropped. Everyone carried their gas masks, but there was no poison gas. Petrol was the only c...