Long before Drake refused to interrupt his game of bowls when the Armada was sighted, the British have had a passionate relationship with sport. Julian Norridge goes through the stories of fourteen major sports from cricket to boxing to football, from their very beginning and throughout the British Isles, whether it’s Welsh inventor and tobacco enthusiast Major Walter Clopton Wingfield coming up with a game that could use those new fangled rubber balls (modern tennis) or the Scots inventing the golf club – 500 years after the game. But this is far more than a book about sport, it takes a very funny, very British look at our popular history, mythology and most importantly the highly eccentric figures that made it. It chronicles the constant battle between fair play and gambling; between advances in the game and plain cheating (such as turning up with a cricket bat wider than the wicket). Can We Have Our Balls Back Please? proves that there is an awful lot to be proud of in our history and where that strange feeling of superiority really comes from. It shows why we get just so excited when we take on any other nation in any sporting event and are so disappointed when we lose...

After the success and also the breaking of the law of the black lives matter movement, all blacks around the world were expelled, forced to return to Africa, creating a political division between blacks and whites. But the explosion of global warming and the rupture of the ozone layer, grants world dominion and power over the only kingdom on the planet that holds natural resources, the kingdom of Muhenda in Africa. A place where white people were never welcome. However, an agent of the intelligence of the whites manages to enter Muhenda. The king of Muhenda is murdered and the white man is sentenced to death for the crime and as retaliation all the remaining whites were made slaves. Years later, a dictator and tyrant empire rises, dominating all of Africa, inflicting terror, oppression, inequality and pain. Led by the new king of Muhenda and the brother of the deceased, the emperor Luther Nankela. That situation forces Sowety, a young African warrior queen and Selena, a young white slave, to stand up, step up and fight against the new system. Two different women, two enemy races, one almost impossible gold, freedom.

The time: late summer, 1962. The place: Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines. Sergeant Jacob "Slag" Krummel, a scholar by intent but a warrior by breeding, assumes command of the 721st Communication Security Deteachment, an unsoldierly crew of bored, rebellious, whoring, foul-mouthed, drunken enlistees. Surviving military absurdities reminiscent of those in Catch-22 only to be shipped clandestinely to Vietnam, Krummel's band confront their worst fears while finally losing faith in America and its myths. Powerful, scathingly funny, and eloquent, One to Count Cadence is a triumphant novel about manhood, anger, war, and lies.

Nigel Flaxton enjoyed a satisfying career in education covering the second half of the 20th century, This is an account of some of his experiences from old-fashioned monastic seclusion in training college just after the Second World War to three headships of new schools, the last being an upper school of over 900 students. Written with gentle humour, often at his own expense, he also comments on the very considerable changes in education in a broad sense during that period. He includes nearly two years in the RAF, to which he was frustratingly called up shortly after he qualified and his unprecedented promotion to Sergeant after one year. .Following what he expected was retirement he continued with government initiatives encouraging greater use of modern technology in schools, then further part-time support to schools using timetable software. This is not just a book for professionals. It will be of interest to anyone who enjoys reading other people's personal memoirs, especially someone with an obvious sense of humour.

Presents an exploration of the Fab Four's arrival in the U.S. featuring essays and interviews from writers, musicians, and fans on how they were inspired and changed by the Beatles.

Zanza is a mosquito and, being a Buddhist, believes she has lived through many thousands of short lifetimes, but she can’t recall a single one of them before she met Herbert. Not that Herbert is particularly memorable. On their first meeting, Zanza viewed this unexceptional human as nothing more than a quick snack opportunity.But then, having sipped from the cup of a Mayan demi-god, Zanza is blessed with a new and profound self-awareness and begins to see her host, not just as a ‘blood bag’, but as a distinct personality. From that point on, with every sip of his blood, with every small death, with every re-incarnation, Zanza learns something new about Herbert. She begins to understand what it is to be human, to feel something like love, to contemplate a chance for immortality.For his part, Herbert, a misanthropic cameraman on assignment in Guatemala, remains oblivious to his involvement in this blossoming relationship. His mind is gripped by a rapidly rising fever, and he is not sure if what he experiences in the dense forests around Tikal is real or a Malaria-induced hallucination. Vampire Monkeys, Zombie Accountants, Golden Warriors that walk through walls, it all starts getting far too weird. But this is a special moment in the world’s history and even the dull witted Herbert finally realises he has a role to play.It’s December 2012, the Mayan Calendar is about to reset to zero and the world is about to end.