Illustrious Australian football coach David O’Connor has arrived in Singapore to very little fanfare. His love for the game and desire to develop the tiny country’s fledgling professional league in a big way has seen him accepting terms he’s less than thrilled about—that is, if his contract even materializes. He faces the daunting task of rebuilding a team whose spirit and confidence is in shatters. He has to bridge cultural divides and finds a way to inspire his team to believe in him, the game, and importantly, themselves and each other. And slowly but surely Gombak United begins to ascend from the bottom of the league table, soon recognized as a force to be reckoned with. But at the height of his success, David is suddenly dropped from the team, marking the start of his downward spiral into drink and womanizing. His journey is fraught with difficulties, leaving him with broken ventures and financial troubles. But David is a fighter, and in a country that seems intent to break him—and jail him even—he is determined to rise again.

DIVDIV“There are too many ways of breaking a footballer’s leg. Too many, that is, from the footballer’s point of view. Others may find the freedom of choice encouraging.”/divDIV Third Division Athletic has been an unlucky club for ages, but things are about to get much worse. Danny Matson, Athletic’s top scorer, is out for the season after a scuffle inexplicably leaves him with a ruptured Achilles tendon. The team’s manager, Jimmy Lister, is convinced that someone is intentionally kicking the team while it’s down, and he hires Nick Duffy to get to the bottom of it./divDIV Duffy has always been a worrier. He frets about his weight, about his burgeoning relationship with constable Carol Lucas, about his promiscuity with both men and women, and about the AIDS epidemic sweeping through London. This latest case gives him an opportunity to focus his attention elsewhere, on a list of suspects ranging from trophy-hungry supporters to hardcore skinheads bent on whitewashing England./divDIV/div/div

Whether you are traveling to Great Britain or just want to understand British popular culture, this unique dictionary will answer your questions. British English from A to Zed contains more than 5,500 British terms and their American equivalents, each with a short explanation of the term’s history and an example of its use. The appendixes provide valuable supplemental material with differences between British and American pronunciation, grammar, and spelling as well as terms grouped in specific areas such as currency, weight, and numbers. This dictionary will help you unravel the meanings of: • Berk (idiot) • Bevvied up (drunk) • Crisps (potato chips) • Erk (rookie) • To judder (to shake) • Noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) • And more! George Bernard Shaw famously said that the British and Americans were “two peoples separated by a common language.” This book bridges that gap.