Between 2008 and 2012, everything changed for Celtic and the supporters. Everything changed for the Author as well. The Internet Bampots were on the rise, going after songs, Referees and an old enemy... Read how Referees thought about Celtic straight from the mouth of a Grade 1 Ref and marvel at how the Internet Bampots refused to take it any more. There are also stories of seedy trips to Atlantic City, mixing with the Mafia and breakfast with The Latin Kings. Well, it is a Paul Larkin book after all...
"Can you keep a secret? Will you be loyal? How old is your Granny? If you can answer these questions positively, you may be ready for the Lanarkshire Referees Association. Don't worry about things like ability, athleticism or experience, they are already in your report..." Why have the Lanarkshire Referees Association been allowed to act however they like in Scottish football, with impunity, since at least 1960? What sort of culture allows institutional bias to go on for decades? Probably the sort that allows the Lanarkshire Referees Association to have a policy of recruitment designed to ensure anyone but Celtic win football matches. Welcome to Scotland...
"Convention is something we do in Las Vegas" Join Paul Larkin on a journey through the decades where he starts his life as a schemie in Muirhoose and ends up a schemie in New York. How did that happen then? It's Celtic through the ages and there are goals, pills, thrills and bellyaches along the way and don't be surprised if you want to cross the street to avoid him by the time you've read this...
The Asterisk Years: The Edinburgh Establishment versus Celtic tells the story of the advantages that Rangers held over the rest of Scottish football in the years they were under the control of David Murray. With the help of the Edinburgh Establishment, Murray was able to cultivate relationships that would allow Rangers to financially dope the Scottish Premier League for over twenty years but would ultimately lead to their death and his fall from grace. In a new section of the book, the author tells the background to the story and the obstacles to getting it out there. The author also describes what it was like to tour the film of the book all around the world. Fully updated to include the HMRC win in the "Big Tax Case", this is a story of privilege, class and the old school tie laced with fear and loathing as David Murray's dream that trampled over Celtic but would ultimately become Rangers nightmare. Oh and we still won...
'Downfall' is the story of the biggest sporting scandal in British history - the demise of Rangers Football Club, the roots of which are shown in the author's prophetic online output over a three-year period.
From the author of the Chanters of Tremaris series comes a contemporary time travel fantasy, grounded in the landscape of Australia Beginning and ending, always the same, always now. The game, the story, the riddle, hiding and seeking. Crow comes from this place; this place comes from Crow. And Crow has work for you. Sadie isn't thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections--with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled ba.
A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR. 'A compelling, authoritative insight into possibly the most controversial death in Britain this century' The Observer. 'Goslett's like Poirot; he asks questions... Spooky and scary' Evening Standard. 'Masterful... This book made me proud of my trade as a journalist' Daily Mail. 'This searing excavation of the mysterious death of Dr David Kelly is investigative journalism at its best. It is brave, relentless, dazzlingly revealing' Peter Oborne. In March 2003 British forces invaded Iraq after Tony Blair said the country could deploy weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes' notice. A few months later, government scientist Dr David Kelly was unmasked by Blair's officials as the assumed source of a BBC news report challenging this claim. Within days, Dr Kelly was found dead in a wood near his home. Blair immediately convened the controversial Hutton Inquiry, which concluded Dr Kelly committed suicide. Yet key questions remain: could Dr Kelly really have taken his life in the manner declared? And why did Blair's government derail the coroner's inquest into Dr Kelly's death? In this meticulous account, award-winning journalist Miles Goslett shows why we should be sceptical of the official story of what happened in that desperate summer of 2003.
'Welsh is at the top of his game' The Face 'His most readable and memorable novel since Trainspotting' Independent on Sunday Glue is the story of four boys growing up in the Edinburgh schemes, and about the loyalties, the experiences and the secrets that hold them together into their thirties. As we follow their lives from the 70s into the new century - from punk to techno, from speed to Es - we can see each of them trying to struggle out from under the weight of the conditioning of class and culture, peer pressure and their parents' hopes that maybe their sons will do better than they did. What binds the four of them is the friendship formed by the scheme, their school, and their ambition to escape from both; their loyalty fused in street morality: back up your mates, don't hit women and, most importantly, never grass - on anyone. 'His most complete and engaging work to date... arguably, his best book' TLS 'A coming-of-age story carved out with a broken bottle' Elle
THE WILEY BLACKWELL COMPANION TO CONTEMPORARY BRITISH AND IRISH LITERATURE An insightful guide to the exploration of modern British and Irish literature The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature is a must-have guide for anyone hoping to navigate the world of new British and Irish writing. Including modern authors and poets from the 1960s through to the 21st century, the Companion provides a thorough overview of contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama by some of the most prominent and noteworthy writers. Seventy-three comprehensive chapters focus on individual authors as well as such topics as Englishness and identity, contemporary Science Fiction, Black writing in Britain, crime fiction, and the influence of globalization on British and Irish Literature. Written in four parts, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature includes comprehensive examinations of individual authors, as well as a variety of themes that have come to define the contemporary period: ethnicity, gender, nationality, and more. A thorough guide to the main figures and concepts in contemporary literature from Britain and Ireland, this two-volume set: Includes studies of notable figures such as Seamus Heaney and Angela Carter, as well as more recently influential writers such as Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters. Covers topics such as LGBT fiction, androgyny in contemporary British Literature, and post-Troubles Northern Irish Fiction Features a broad range of writers and topics covered by distinguished academics Includes an analysis of the interplay between individual authors and the major themes of the day, and whether an examination of the latter enables us to appreciate the former. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature provides essential reading for students as well as academics seeking to learn more about the history and future direction of contemporary British and Irish Literature.
