Celtic legend Bertie Auld is one of the most controversial and colourful characters in Scottish football history. For decades he has steadfastly refused to discuss his remarkable lifetime in the game - until now! Bertie never shirked a tackle as a player and there are still no holds barred long after the boots have been put away. It's the book everyone wanted and it's a sensational read.
44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 4 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. There is never a quiet moment on 44 Scotland Street. In The World According to Bertie, Pat deals with the reappearance of Bruce, which has her heart skipping—and not in a pleasant way. Angus Lordie's dog Cyril has been taken away by the authorities, accused of being a serial biter. Unexpectedly, Domenica has offered to help free him. As usual, Big Lou is still looking for love, and handing out coffee and advice to the always contemplative Matthew. And Bertie, the beleaguered Italian-speaking six year old prodigy, now has a little brother, Ulysses, who Bertie hopes will help distract his pushy mother Irene. Beautifully observed, cleverly detailed, The World According to Bertie is classic McCall Smith and a treat for his avid fans as well as his first time readers.
Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the stunning, classic story of an unforgettable friendship with a glorious colour gift edition, fully illustrated by Christian Birmingham.
Our beloved cast of characters are back, as are the joys and trials of life at 44 Scotland Street in this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s delightfully charming series. Bertie’s mother, Irene, returns from the Middle East to discover that, in her absence, her son has been exposed to the worst of evils—television shows, ice cream parlors, and even unsanctioned art at the National Portrait Gallery. Her wrath descends on Bertie’s long-suffering father, Stuart. But Stuart has found a reason to spend more time outside of the house and seems to have a new spring in his step. What does this mean for the residents of 44 Scotland Street? The winds of change have come to the others as well. Angus undergoes a spiritual transformation after falling victim to an unexpected defenestration. Bruce has fallen in a rather different sense for a young woman who is determined to share with him her enthusiasm for extreme sports. Matthew and Elspeth have a falling out with their triplets’ au pair, while Big Lou continues to fall in love with her new role as a mother. And as Irene resumes work on what she calls her Bertie Project, reinstating Bertie’s Italian lessons, yoga classes, and psychotherapy, Bertie begins to hatch a project of his own—one that promises freedom.
The incredible truth behind the legend of George Connelly Hailed as the greatest Scottish talent of his generation, George Connelly made 254 appearances for Celtic and played in the Scotland team that qualified for the 1974 World Cup Finals. But at the age of 26 he walked away from football and the promise of a glittering career. So, what went wrong? George Connelly had a rare talent. He could pass long or short with unerring accuracy, could entertain crowds with his keepie-uppie skills and seemed to have the world at his feet. But with a troubled private life and the pressures of stardom weighing on his shoulders, the man behind the laidback exterior was falling apart. In Celtic's Lost Legend, George Connelly tells the remarkable story of why he walked away from his dreams and from the team he loved. Here, at last, he answers the question that has intrigued football fans for more than forty years. Whatever became of George Connelly?
Chic Charnley is one of the most controversial, colourful characters in Scottish football history. Blessed with awesome talent, incredible ability and spectacular skills, he's the player who could - and should - have been one of the biggest names in sport. But, by his own admission, he blew it. Here he tells all in the most revealing, unputdownable book of the game. The maverick midfielder tells it like it is, including the real reason he did not sign for his boyhood idols Celtic; the genuine regrets of a stormy career that kept him in the headlines for all the wrong reasons; his bad boy image, crazy antics and why he was sent off a record amount of times; how he ruined Henrik Larsson's Celtic debut; the day he was attacked by a thug with a sword - during training! - and much more. Here, for the first time, Chic Charnley talks about the rollercoaster career that saw him play for Partick Thistle, Hibs, St. Mirren, Dundee, Ayr, Clydebank, Hamilton and a few others in between. It's a journey through football with tales as outrageous as the character himself!
Celtic strode majestically into the history books in 1967 as the first British club to conquer Europe, and the iconic photograph of captain Billy McNeill holding aloft the glittering European Cup in the Lisbon sunshine is the defining image of that footballing era. Yet at the start of the decade, Celtic were a team plagued by defeats and in disarray both on and off the field. What brought about their remarkable transformation? In Celtic: The Awakening, Alex Gordon enters uncharted territory to investigate the story of Celtic in the 1960s, an extraordinary decade in the club's roller-coaster 125-year history. Players of the era, good, bad and indifferent, are interviewed in depth in an attempt to unravel one of football’s greatest mysteries. Sweeping through the ’60s and beyond, Celtic: The Awakening details the previously untold story of how a proud club rose from grief to glory, from dismay to delight.
44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 3 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. This just in from Edinburgh: the complicated lives of the denizens of 44 Scotland Street are becoming no simpler. Domenica Macdonald has left for the Malacca Straits to conduct a perilous anthropological study of pirate households. Angus Lordie’s dog, Cyril, has been stolen, and is facing an uncertain future wandering the streets. Bertie, the prodigiously talented six-year-old, is still enduring psychotherapy, but his burden is lightened by a junior orchestra's trip to Paris, where he makes some interesting new friends. Back in Edinburgh, there is romance for Pat with a handsome young man called Wolf, until she begins to see the attractions of the more prosaically named Matthew. Teeming with McCall Smith’s wonderful wit and charming depictions of Edinburgh, Love Over Scotland is another beautiful ode to a city and its people that continue to fascinate this astounding author.
In 1967 Celtic manager Jock Stein stepped from the tunnel of Lisbon's Estadio Nacional and took up a position pitch-side as his team of home-grown players ran out to face the might of Inter Milan, the charismatic superstars of Italian football, in the European Cup final. Celtic were a team forged in Stein's own image, steeled with a relentless industry and integrity by their inspirational manager whose character had, in turn, been honed by the horrors of the deep dark of the Lanarkshire coalfields. Martin Greig and Charles McGarry's extraordinary novel delves to the very heart of that incredible season, telling the story through the eyes of Stein - as he plots and plans and drags his team to the pinnacle of European club football - and those of Tim, an idealistic young fan from the south side of Glasgow, whose dreams of life beyond the decaying slums of the Gorbals are inextricably tied to those of his heroes. The Road to Lisbon is a novel of hopes and dreams, of self-discovery and triumph over adversity ...and of an unerring love with an institution that represents so much more than just a football club.
