Taking you through the year day by day, The Sheffield Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods of history. Events include matters of national importance such as the Coronation of George IV, as well as local incidents such as the Sheffield Outrages and accounts of riots in the town. There are amusing incidents from the local newspaper, for example the punishments inflicted on young boys for playing 'trip' during Divine Service and an outbreak of people being bitten by 'mad dogs'. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information, it will delight residents and visitors alike.
This above-average sports memoir is peppered with engaging on-the-field anecdotes, forays inside the competitive mind of a world-class athlete, and thoughtfully presented glimpses of the harsh, often uncaring world of big-time sports.
Taking you through the year day by day, The Ipswich Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of one of England's oldest towns. 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 Ipswich's archives and covering the social, criminal, political, religious, industrial, military and sporting history of the town, it will delight residents and visitors alike.
Taking you through the year day by day, The Isle of Wight Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of the Island. 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 the Isle of Wight’s archives and covering the social, criminal, political, religious, industrial, military and sporting history of the Island, it will delight residents and visitors alike.
The year is 1976 and Jack Sheffield never wants to leave his job. Jack has been the deputy head teacher at Newbridge Primary School for six years now, and he's happy exactly where he is - even if it sometimes feels like there are a few things missing from his life. After all, the kids keep him busy and there's always a game of rugby to play. But it's a time of change, and Jack's world is no exception. New and old faces appear in his life and a romance blossoms, bringing with it a buried secret and hidden threat. Soon, Jack must make a decision as to where his future is heading, and prepare to face whatever change is yet to come . . . A classic Jack Sheffield tale, ready to transport you back to a simpler time. _____________________ Praise for Jack Sheffield: 'Wry observation and heartwarming humour in equal measure.' Alan Titchmarsh 'Overflowing with amusing anecdotes.' Daily Express 'Amusing adventures at the North Yorkshire village school.' Choice 'Jack Sheffield's in a class of his own.' York Press
It's 1978, and Jack Sheffield begins his second year as headmaster of a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. There are three letters on his desk - one makes him smile, one makes him sad and one is destined to change his life forever. This is from nine-year-old Sebastian, suffering from leukaemia in the local hospital, who writes a heartbreaking letter addressed to 'Mister Teacher'. Jack tries to help, and so begins a journey through the seasons of Yorkshire life in which the school is the natural centre of the community. There's a colourful cast of characters who accompany Jack through the ups and downs of the school year including Vera, the school secretary who worships Margaret Thatcher and whose greatest ambition is to become President of the Women's Institute; Ruby, the 20-stone caretaker who sings like Julie Andrews; and Dorothy, the coffee shop assistant who is desperate to be Wonder Woman. Most of all, there is the lovely Beth Henderson, a teacher from a nearby school, who with her sister Laura presents Jack with an unexpected dilemma ... Don't miss Jack Sheffield's hilarious and heart-warming new novel, LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - coming soon and available to pre-order now!
The Zardalu were the greatest menace ever known to the worlds of the spiral arm, enslaving entire races and exterminating others, guided by an unswerving belief in their own supremacy. Then their slaves rose up against them, and for eleven thousand years the Zardalu had been extinct and the spiral arm had known a kind of peace. But now the Zardalu are back . . . The search for the Builders, the legendary alien race whose unfathomable constructs continued to perplex scholars and explorers alike, had led Builder expert Darya Lang, adventurer Hans Rebka, and treasure hunters Louis Nenda and Atvar H'sial to an unknown Builder artifact far outside the spiral arm. There they found the Zardalu - just a few who had been trapped in stasis all those millennia, held there for purposes known only to the Builders. And in the struggle that ensued the Zardalu had been set loose, transported by Builder technology to to galactic parts unknown - free to ravage any world and any race within their grasp. The only chance to eliminate the Zardalu threat was to find them and wipe them out before they had time to breed back up to strength and once again threaten civilized beings everywhere. The problem was that no one believed the story. Only Darya Land and her companions had actually seen the aliens - and no evidence existed to support their claims. And so the course seemed clear: get a ship themselves and search out the Zardalu. But the way would not be easy. Even once they managed to locate the Zardalu, they still had the Builders to deal with. For the closer they got to their quarry, the more clear it became that the Zardalu and their world were closely entwined with the fate - and the plans - of the Builders themselves.
'A small masterpiece' The Spectator My Own Worst Enemy is a wry and moving memoir of a working-class childhood in 1960s Sheffield, and the relationship between a touchy, tragicomic bully of a father and a son whose acceptance to grammar school puts him on another track entirely. With a novelist's eye, Robert Edric vividly depicts a now-vanished era: of working-men's clubs; of tight-knit communities in factory towns; and of a time when a woman's place was in the home. And he brings to colourful life his family, both close and extended – though over all of it hovers the vanity and barely-suppressed anger of his own father. My Own Worst Enemy is a brilliantly specific portrait both of particular time and place – the Sheffield of half a century ago – and a universal story of childhood and family, and the ways they can go right or wrong.
