The Book of Newcastle showcases a collection of over 350 of Trevor Dickinson's drawings of the city, starting January 2009 with the last made during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. The drawings record the small ignored details, from signposts and bins, to the beautiful beaches and everything in between, making a very personal visual portrait of Newcastle NSW in a period of great change.The book is also about the process of drawing, it documents the development of an artist from the first urban sketch to a full time career, and includes sketchbooks, murals, zines and commissioned work.
The original Northern Powerhouse, Newcastle upon Tyne has witnessed countless transformations over the last century or so, from its industrial heyday, when Tyneside engineering and innovation led the world, through decades of post-industrial decline, and underinvestment, to its more recent reinvention as a cultural destination for the North. The ten short stories gathered here all feature characters in search of something, a new reality, a space, perhaps, in which to rediscover themselves: from the call-centre worker imagining herself far away from the claustrophobic realities of her day job, to the woman coming to terms with an ex-lover who’s moved on all too quickly, to the man trying to outrun his mother’s death on Town Moor. The Book of Newcastle brings together some of the city’s most renowned literary talents, along with exciting new voices, proving that while Newcastle continues to feel the effects of its lost industrial past, it is also a city striving for a future that brims with promise.
This is the full, unofficial and uncensored story of one of the greatest football clubs in the world. It brings to life the sensational early successes of the great Anglo-Scottish team before the First World War and follows the club's successes as Cup giants in the 1950s and European conquerors in the 60s, to the Macdonald and Keegan squads of the 1970s and '80s, to its rebirth in the 1990s and through its trials and tribulations of the first decade of the 21st century. Exploring and explaining the lean years as well as the successful decades, Roger Hutchinson brilliantly portrays the managers and players throughout the club's long history and brings the story right up to date as, after the relegation traumas of 2008/09, Newcastle United looks forward to a resurgence in their fortunes as they return to the Premiership in 2010.
When 5-year-old Michael Chaplin landed in a strange city of ships in the late 1950s, he looked in vain for something that would anchor him to it, make him feel at home. Then, one Saturday afternoon, it came: the roar of a crowd, and a football team to support. Young Michael became an avid Newcastle United fan, and has remained one–if sometimes disenchanted–for over sixty years. In this football memoir with a difference, the celebrated playwright and screenwriter tells the story of his six-decade love affair with the club, each chapter recreating an iconic Newcastle match: the players who graced the game, the managers in the dug-out, and the backdrop outside the stadium–both the changing face of Newcastle, and the ups and downs of Michael’s own life and career. This vivid, thoughtful and entertaining book is an absolute must-read for all Newcastle United supporters, and indeed—given that the club is often described as everyone’s second favourite—for football fans everywhere
Taking you through the year day by day, The Newcastle Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of the city. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Newcastle's archives and covering the social, criminal, political, religious, industrial, military and sporting history of the region, it will delight residents and visitors alike.
When Newcastle United crashed out of the FA Cup in Cardiff in April 2005, it was official: the second best-supported club in England and the eleventh richest in the world had completed 50 years without winning a domestic trophy. Since their last success - an FA Cup win in 1955 - no less than thirty-two clubs have won one of the three major prizes in the English game, but not the Magpies. In that half century, they've employed some of the biggest names in world football, yet most of their fanatical supporters have never seen them win a pot. In 2004, Sir Bobby Robson paid the price for failing to bring the holy grail to the Geordie faithful. And in 2006, Graeme Souness was next to go, the 17th manager to try - and fail - to win one of English football's glittering prizes for the longest suffering fans in the land. In Newcastle United: Fifty Years of Hurt, Ged Clarke examines this extraordinary football phenomenon with all the humour you would expect from a disappointed but dedicated United fan. He chronicles the decades of disaster and talks to Newcastle legends such as Peter Beardsley, Les Ferdinand, Jack Charlton, Bob Moncur and Malcolm Macdonald in a bid to discover an explanation for the longest losing streak in top-class football.
Newcastle United is a colourful football club at the very heart of the city's community and one with a rich history and tradition. One character has become synonymous with the Black 'n' Whites and their famous striped shirts - the centre-forward, the No. 9 hero, the man who has pulled on the 'Shirt of Legends'. Since the club's earliest days, the rapport between Newcastle's fervent Geordie supporters and United's centre-forward has been one of the great tales of soccer: one full of incident, controversy and fabulous goalscoring feats. Much rests on the shoulders of United's centre-forward. He carries the dreams of thousands and the hopes of a whole Geordie nation. From Peddie, Appleyard and Shepherd to Wee Hughie Gallacher and the 'Smiling Assassin', Albert Stubbins. Onwards with 'Wor' Jackie Milburn - a legend in himself - Len White, the mighty Wyn Davies and a brash cockney, Malcolm Macdonald - 'Supermac' to all. And including modern-day icons: Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer - perhaps the biggest No. 9 hero of them all. They have been a mixed bunch: some tall, lean and fast; some small, tricky and highly skilled.Others have been graceful; a few have roved along the forward line, while there have been robust, aggressive characters on view, too. Some have been masterful in the air, while several struck the ball with terrific power; others have possessed the art of placement and, a few, the ultimate poacher's instinct in front of goal. But all had the same mission: to score goals and, whatever their style, if they donned the centre-forward shirt for Newcastle United, they were treated as gods. Shirt of Legends is about all of those players - the many different characters and personalities in the centre-forward role who have worn Newcastle United's No. 9 shirt since its introduction in 1939.
A monumental, genre-defying novel that David Mitchell calls "Michel Faber’s second masterpiece," The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter. Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us. Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos.
