“Putting this book down would be like switching off the TV during the second half in Istanbul. It’s just not an option.” Ian Callaghan. Liverpool FC legend
25 May 1977
On the day of Liverpool’s first European Cup final in Rome, the
destinies of two families become intertwined. The Tates and the
McGuires; same neighbourhood, different sides of the track. The
Tates are the notorious ones and twenty-year-old Eddie Tate is on
the fast track to the top of the Merseyside underworld. At thirteen
his youngest sister Lucy is beginning to realise what it means to
have Tate as her second name. Frank McGuire is about to leave
school for the growing dole queue and sees Eddie as his way out.
So when Eddie needs a small lad to go through a chemist’s window,
Frank press gangs his little brother Mickey for the job. What
starts off as a simple burglary sets of a chain of events that span
twenty-eight years and five European Cup Finals.
25 May 2005
Eddie Tate has become the undisputed king of the Liverpool
drugs trade and Frank McGuire is his feared enforcer. Lucy Tate
has left her family and past far behind to become a BBC
reporter. Mickey McGuire’s life has been a story of endless
decline and failure. He goes from underachieving pupil, to minor
rock star, to drug addict, to prisoner to a hospital porter. Like his
beloved Liverpool FC, it seems like he is all washed up. Then
against all odds, he is offered one last chance to turn it all
around. To take his chance he needs to make it to the
Champions League Final in Turkey. To raise the cash he crosses
Eddie Tate and as the great red crusade heads south, death
waits round every corner on Mickey’s road to Istanbul . . . “A story of red blooded passion and Turkish delight.” John Keith – Writer and broadcaster
I
would like to order:
‘When the past meets the flames’ The continent of Europe is still divided by a fence that runs from the Baltic Sea to the Swiss border.
Thousands of nuclear missiles in the West are aimed at the cities of the East
And thousands of nuclear missiles in the East are aimed at the cities of the West.
The Cold War rages.
In 1981, Solly Bernstein discovers the last great oil field in the world under the Iraqi desert town of El Kebil,
In 1994, Two British soldiers witness a massacre in a dark Bosnian valley.
Threads.
Danny McCann is a boy with the world at his feet.
He’s fifteen. He’s just been selected for the Scotland Under 16’s football team.
Coaches from big clubs are coming to Dumfries to watch him play.The road to the football dream lies open. But Danny starts to make the wrong choices.
Young people take drugs to get high. That’s the part the see on the T Shirts. Sadly, all too often young people take drugs and find themselves on the Road to Down. Sometimes it leads them all the way down to the place where life doesn’t seem to worth living any more. This book isn’t about the stuff on T shirts. This is about the dark stuff that gets swept away under the carpet. It isn’t warm and fuzzy.
This book is about why people take
to the streets and throw stones. Like they did in the eighties.
Like they might do tomorrow. Its about how far some people will
go when they get angry. And how far other people will go to
stop them.’
Lenny’s journey spans the eras. From the burning sun
of Orgreave to the killing fields of Iraq. From Reagan to
Bush. From Thatcher to Blair. From the Cold War to the War
on Terror.
‘A Mersey
‘Gone With The Wind’ that races like a high speed bullet
train all the way from Rome 1977 to Istanbul 2005.’
“Putting this book down would be like switching off the TV
during the second half in Istanbul. It’s just not an option.”
Ian Callaghan. Liverpool FC legend.
‘A head spinning
‘Day of the Jackal’ for the Twenty First century. The
pages almost turn themselves’
Roland McMillan is ninety five
years old and his doctors see little chance of him making it to
ninety six. In 1926 he fled the desperate misery of his life in
the mining town of Kirkonnel and emigrated to America. Over seventy
nine years he has built up a colossal
family fortune. Now it is time to tidy up his affairs
'Everyone who has
lost a child to heroin will want to be Jack Sinclair. Tragic, thrilling,
captivating.'
-Simon Houston, Daily Record.
February 2001. The wind turns to the east, and the Foot and Mouth
epidemic starts to rage across South West Scotland. A region already
in decline is thrown into catastrophe. Funeral pyres light up the
night sky.
"A
gripping journey through the past. An alarming view of the present.
A terrifying vision of the future."
'Frankland turns
crisis into drama.' Sunday Telegraph
November 1997 and British Farming is being ripped apart by the
BSE Crisis. Vast areas of the countryside are facing devastation.
Finally one man decides that enough is enough.
6000
Asylum Seekers are housed in the giant tower blocks of Sighthill in
Glasgow.
A vast unexploded human bomb. The clock is ticking.
"An unrelenting pile driver
of a read."
'A fantastic
adventure book for all young football lovers - even one as young as
me !'
Sir Tom Finney
Once in every generation a great new star emerges into the world of
football.
Out of the slums of Sao Paulo came Pele.
Out of the bullet scarred streets of Belfast came Georgie Best
Out of the shanty towns of Buenos Aires came Maradona.
