Tom Maxwell

Jackie Plenderleith

How I Made European History With HibsJackie Plenderleith with Tom Maxwell

First and Last

Showers of blood, however dreadful, were not news. Pliny, Cicero, Livy, and Plutarch mentioned rains of blood and flesh. Zeus makes it rain blood, 'as a portent of slaughter,' in Homer's Iliad." This article appears in the Spring 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook. Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

An article from Southern Cultures 18:1, Spring 2012

"For the Scrutiny of Science and the Light of Revelation": American Blood Falls

Tom Maxwell explores the confused national identity of Berwick-Upon-Tweed and its unique football club and talks to some of its greatest players who have worn the iconic black and gold shirt.

An English Club's Century in Scottish Football

The Lone Rangers

Denis Law introduces this fascinating insight into Joe and Gerry Baker. They amassed over 500 goals between them, yet never played for Scotland. With unprecedented access to family archives, first-hand accounts and interviews, this is an essential addition to Scottish football history.

The Greatest Strikers Scotland Never Had

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Tony Black

A strangled prostitute, laid out on a prize-winning fairway. A stabbed pensioner, found wasting away in a rubbish-strewn house. And a brutally murdered banker, his expensive car sabotaged en route to a plush home. All three have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, something DCI Kenny Gillespie knows all about. It’s certainly bad luck that the Edinburgh detective picked today to tell his wife about his recent affair. But with Scotland’s capital city falling into lawlessness and a rabid media calling for his head, Gillespie has much more to worry about than just who has blood on their hands. And with a boss who cares more about his golf average than the body count and a rookie partner who knows more about coffee than he does about crime, the detective has never felt more of an outsider. That’s just the way he likes it. Slings & Arrows is a fast-paced psychological thriller that pulls at the edges of a fraying society. Twisty, turny Scottish crime to thrill fans of Rankin, May and McDermid.

Slings & Arrows

With a total of more than 500 goals in careers that saw them turn out for the likes of Hibernian, St Mirren, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Torino, Joe and Gerry Baker are two of the greatest strikers Scotland never had. While Liverpool-born Hibs legend Joe became the first man to make his England debut having never played in the English league, his US-born brother Gerry, a hero of St Mirren's Scottish Cup-winning side of 1959, was the first top-flight European footballer to turn out for the USA. Even though he spoke with a broad Scottish accent, Joe was in Alf Ramsey's initial squad for the 1966 World Cup. With unprecedented access to the Baker family archives, including contributions from Gerry Baker and the late Joe's son Colin, The Fabulous Baker Boys is a unique tale of Scotland's most celebrated sporting siblings and contains exclusive interviews with the likes of Denis Law, Lawrie Reilly, John Robertson, Alex Young, Pat Stanton, Bob Wilson and George Eastham.

Tom Maxwell

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