‘It’s a funny old game.’ The world’s favourite sport has certainly given us its fair share of strange moments, and this absorbing collection gathers together the best of them, from more than a century of the beautiful game. From Blackburn Rovers’ one-man team to Wilfred Minter’s seven-goal haul in which he still ended up on the losing side, here are goals and gaffes galore drawn from all levels of the footballing world, whether high-profile internationals or the lowest tiers of domestic football. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of football fanatics, this book is the perfect gift for the soccer obsessive in your life. Word count: 45,000 words

All the fun of Portico's bestselling Strangest series, now in quiz form! Test your football knowledge with this handy book, packed with fun and challenging quiz questions based around the weirdest events from more than a century of football history. Quiz categories include: Outlandish scorelines Freaky weather Unfeasible goals Animals on pitches Cup madness Streakers Football's great eccentrics International antics Whether you're testing your friends, practising for pub quizzes or just reading it in an armchair, this book will take your football knowledge to a whole new level. Word count: 30,000 words.

Football is at the heart of British national identity, intrinsically linked to our social history. Through more than forty fascinating stories Football Nation reveals the hidden and not-so-hidden history of the game since 1945. From the mass audiences of austerity Britain and the introduction of floodlights at Accrington Stanley in the 1950s, through the escalating hooliganism of the 1970s and the arrival of the first all-seater stadium at Coventry in the 1980s, to the Hillsborough disaster and the coming of the Premiership, Andrew Ward and John Williams reveal the truth about the national game as it was once and is today in the age of satellite TV, celebrity lifestyle and extreme wealth. Looking back at the days when footballers were amateurs who travelled to the match with the fans, right through to the present day where top-flight players command a higher weekly wage than the average spectator can earn in a year, Football Nation is informed, wryly amusing, often surprising and always vastly entertaining. It offers an entirely fresh perspective on the history of the beautiful game in Britain.

Rugby fans will delight in this astonishing collection of outlandish stories from the past 150 years of the game. Here you’ll find, among many other curious events, the Irish international who arranged his marriage in order to play against England, the team of top soccer players who beat their rugby counterparts at their own game, the day the entire Wales team was sent off, and when in an astonishing turn of events underdog Japan trimphed and beat South Africa (and who doesn't love an underdog). The tales in this book are bizarre, fascinating, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for 2016, this book makes the perfect gift for the rugby obsessive in your life. Word count: 45,000

An entertaining collection of extraordinary but true tales from over a century of the Ashes, cricket's most famous international contest. The book contains episodes from all of the most famous series', including the controversial 1932-33 Bodyline series; England’s momentous victory in the coronation year of 1953; their dramatic last-minute win following a freak rainstorm that flooded the Oval in 1968; Beefy’s Ashes of 1981; and the plague of injuries that forced out all but four of England’s original sixteen-man squad in 1994. Great bowlers and batsmen alike are all featured, whether Aussie or Pom, from W.G. Grace to Shane Warne. This year's Ashes (2009) are to take place in England - the first test starts on July 8th in Cardiff (a new venue), while the second, third, fourth and fifth tests will be held at Lords, Edgbaston, Headingley and the Oval respectively. With the England team once again in good form, a solid captain in Andrew Strauss (which also leaves Kevin Pieterson to concentrate on his superb batting), and Australia not quite as strong since Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer's retirement, it promises to be an exciting and closely-fought series. This summer the nation will once again take test cricket to its heart - all the more so since the collapse of Stanford's 20/20.

This enthralling collection of weird and wonderful tales from the world of theatre includes such unusual stories as the legendary ghost of Drury Lane, how an actor can exorcise the curse of Macbeth, and the well-known theatre manager who fried bacon and eggs in the Royal Box to feed her starving cast at the interval. If you have ever wondered whether what happens in the stalls is actually more dramatic than what happens on stage, which shows were so bad that they closed during the interval on the first night, or how the ‘green room’ was named, then 'Theatre’s Strangest Acts' is the book for you.