West Midlands Turf Wars

In the third volume of the acclaimed Turf Wars series, journalist and broadcaster Steve Tongue looks at the history of football in the West Midlands, where the world's first Football League was dreamed up and administered more than 130 years ago. Fierce rivalries had already emerged by then, and have remained as strong as anywhere. Aston Villa and Birmingham City (as Small Heath Alliance) were founded within a year of each other, only a few miles apart, as were equally bitter neighbours West Bromwich Albion and Wolves. And just as in London and Lancashire, turf wars were fought off the pitch too. In Burton and Walsall, the biggest local clubs once amalgamated to carry the name of their town forward. But what an outcry there was in the Potteries when Stoke City and Port Vale almost did the same. This is the story of them all, large and small, and non-league too with a colourful cast of characters - Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright, Major Frank Buckley and Ron Atkinson, William McGregor, Jimmy Hill and 'Deadly' Doug Ellis among them.

Lancashire has had a major role to play in English football, from Preston North End's 'Invincibles' to the European trophy winners of Manchester and Merseyside. This is the story of these great rivals, their triumphs, scandals and tragedies, and the great players who have kept the red rose to the fore at home and abroad. Lancashire has had a major role to play in English football from its earliest days to the present. The county's leading clubs were largely responsible for the introduction of professionalism in the 1880s, after Preston North End admitted paying their players, and the world's first Football League was divided between teams from the North West and the Midlands. Preston's 'Invincibles' triumphed in that first competition before adding the FA Cup that two different Blackburn clubs had already won - and soon the great clubs of Merseyside and Manchester were winning their first trophies. As the turf wars developed, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Bury and Oldham all made their mark in the top division; clubs such as Rochdale and Wigan fought the good fight in rugby hotbeds; and more recently Fleetwood and Morecambe have carried the name of their towns further afield. This is the story of these great rivals, their triumphs, scandals and tragedies, and the great players who have kept the red rose to the fore at home and abroad.A

Few cities in the world have as many professional football clubs as London and none have the history explored in this book by journalist and broadcaster Steve Tongue. It was in the English capital that the Football Association - the first of its kind anywhere - was founded in 1863 and that the FA Cup, the world's most famous domestic cup competition, was born. After the North and Midlands dominated the first forty-odd years of league football, three clubs in particular - Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea - began to challenge them and eventually succeeded, joining West Ham United as trophy winners not only at home but in Europe. Between those four clubs, and more than a dozen other professional clubs past and present, grew the turf wars that are the bedrock of the great rivalries and derbies across England's most vibrant football city. Turf Wars tells the story of football in the capital.

The online blogs of Professor David Bailey of Coventry University Business School and John Clancy, Visiting Lecturer at the University of Birmingham Business School, have been provocative and lively part of the Birmingham Post website for some time. Here is the first volume of their blogs from 2008-2010.

'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily Telegraph Blood is thicker than water... A massive undercover operation turns personal for DI Faraday when his son is involved. Portsmouth's major drug dealer's time is up. For years Bazza Mackenzie has made millions selling cocaine and heroin into the streets of Portsmouth. He's laundered the money and on the surface at least is one of Hampshire's great and the good. The police have had enough and a year long undercover operation is set up to trap Mackenzie. But when one of the investigation's leading lights is run over and put in hospital Joe Faraday is drafted in to wrap things up. It should be a dream job but Joe fears someone will move in to fill the vacuum when Bazza is gone. Bazza seems to be one step ahead of the investigation at every turn in any case. And then Faraday's son J-J is arrested. He faces a manslaughter charge for supplying drugs to an addict who has subsequently overdosed... Why readers love Graham Hurley: 'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily Telegraph 'Well-written and plotted, utterly convincing and really exciting... Excellent' Daily Mail 'One of the great talents of British police procedurals... every book he delivers is better than the last' Independent on Sunday Fans of Ian Rankin, Peter James and Peter Robinson will love Graham Hurley: Faraday and Winter 1. Turnstone 2. The Take 3. Angels Passing 4. Deadlight 5. Cut to Black 6. Blood and Honey 7. One Under 8. The Price of Darkness 9. No Lovelier Death 10. Beyond Reach 11. Borrowed Light 12. Happy Days Jimmy Suttle 1. Western Approaches 2. Touching Distance 3. Sins of the Father 4. The Order of Things * Each Graham Hurley novel can be read as a standalone or in series order *

Although organised criminal groups have been an ever-present menace to our cities, in the last decade gangs have snowballed into one of the most terrifying problems facing Britain today. Seducing disillusioned youngsters into their ranks, vicious crews have declared open war in a desperate attempt to gain control of the lucrative drug trade...murder, kidnapping and intimidation have become all too common.In south Manchester, the feud between the Gooch Gang and the Doddingtons became so vicious that peace-keepers from America's Crips and Bloods were flown in from Los Angeles to broker a deal. Across the United States, the Crips now boast some 35,000 members from all ethnic backgrounds - African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian - while the Bloods have made an alliance with the old-time Lucchese crime family, once one of the 'Five Families' of New York and still a pillar of the Cosa Nostra.

Based on years of in-depth field research, this book unravels the complexities of the Yemeni state and its domestic politics with a particular focus on the post-1990 years. The central thesis is that Yemen continues to suffer from regional fragmentation which has endured for centuries. En route the book discusses the rise of President Salih, his tribal and family connections, Yemen's civil war in 1994, the war's consequences later in the decade, the spread of radical movements after the US military response to 9/11 and finally developments leading to the historic events of 2011. This book sets a new standard for scholarship on Yemeni politics and it is essential reading for anyone interested in the modern Middle East, the 2011 Arab revolts and twenty-first-century Islamic politics.