Rob Williams

John Simmons

Tim Rich

Ali Smith finds the modern landscape still suggests the otherworldly creatures she used to read about in folk tales. Niall Griffiths laments the clumsy tributes to Dylan Thomas that cover every available surface in Laugharne. Virginia Woolf's Orlando might seem to be standing beside you in the unchanged parkland around Knole. How does Jaspar Fforde's alternative Swindon compare with our comparatively prosaic version? And who would have thought the M40 such a rich seam for Will Self? Every writer contributing to this amazing tour of literary Britain continues to be inspired by the writers who lived in their region. They find, whether or not the landscape is changed, some common ground with them.

Around Britain in 30 Writers

Common Ground

Freda Sack

A beautifully presented, original exploration of the alphabet, which will be featured in a major exhibition at the British Library.

Illuminating the Alphabet

26 Letters

Brian Horton

Brian Horton is one of the most respected managers in English football. As a player, manager and assistant, he took part in over 2,000 games - in Britain only Sir Alex Ferguson can claim more. Horton's career started in the World Cup summer of 1966 and ended over half a century later. His playing career began unceremoniously when Port Vale bought him from non-league Hednesford for the price of a pint of shandy. But later, as Brighton captain, he became a club legend, skippering the Seagulls from the Third to the First Division. He continued this success at Luton and Hull, before managing the Yorkshire side. Horton further distinguished himself as boss at Oxford and then Manchester City, keeping the Citizens in the Premier League for two thrilling seasons. Spells at Huddersfield, Brighton, Port Vale and Macclesfield followed before Brian was catapulted back to the Premier League at Hull City as assistant manager to Phil Brown. He continued to work with Brown at Preston, Southend and Swindon until his retirement in 2018.

A Life in Football

Two Thousand Games

Marcelo Bielsa is one of football's greatest eccentrics and greatest enigmas. This will be the first English biography of one of football's most contradictory characters. He has coached some of the greatest names in world football - Gabriel Batistuta, Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastian Veron and Ander Herrera. He has been cited as a mentor by Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone. Yet Marcelo Bielsa remains one of the great enigmas of world football - a fabulously innovative and obsessive coach, who has transformed Leeds United, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao. He also lasted two days at Lazio and led Argentina to their greatest footballing disaster. Featuring interviews from across South America, Europe and Yorkshire, The Quality of Madness is a comprehensive and compelling biography, tracing Bielsa's story from growing up as a member of one of Argentina's most remarkable families to his revival of Leeds. Bielsa has long been known as 'El Loco' - the Madman - and yet as Tim Rich's revelatory study reveals, there is mercurial method and audacious logic to the madness.

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The Quality of Madness

In the year when Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola, swept its way to the Premier League title, Caught Beneath the Landslide examines another, very different club, also called Manchester City. In the words of Uwe Rosler: “It was a different club, a working-class club supported by the people of Manchester”. Run, not by a faceless sheikh, but by men like Peter Swales and Francis Lee who ran the gauntlet of supporters’ anger as season after season ran out of control.

Tim Rich

Books

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