With over four decades supporting Carlisle United, travelling to more than 100 grounds to cheer them on in close to 1,000 games, author Tim Pocock has written this memoir to celebrate his sporting life with the Blues. He uses his personal match reports to bring a contemporary feel to his memories, from being abused by the Paddock, pulled over on the motorway by a United legend and nearly assisting a United goal. A former Carlisle fanzine publisher, Tim has written the book as a labour of love. It isn't a balanced, objective history - it is for those who, like him, see the football world through Blue tinted glasses. Expect the follow-up in five years to celebrate United winning the Champions League.

This book began as a series of blog posts, each post based on the most recent Carlisle United match. It charts the club's decline in the 2021-2022 season to a point in February 2022 when the club found itself in the League Two relegation zone. The return of Carlisle-born former manager Paul Simpson saw the club embark on a dramatic revival which resulted in Carlisle United comfortably avoiding relegation. The author was present at many of those games that ensured the team's climb to safety. Following retirement in July 2022, the author was in a position to buy season tickets for himself and his son, meaning that they were able to attend about 75% of the club's games in the 2022-2023 season, clocking up well over 7,000 miles in the process. in addition to the physical journey, It was a remarkable metaphorical journey for the club. Mild expectation grew into optimism, grew into ambition, grew into expectation, before the remarkable denouement that saw Carlisle win an unlikely promotion to League One in the most dramatic fashion, via a penalty shoot-out in the play-off final at Wembley. This book recounts that two-season journey blow-by-blow, each post written within two or three days of the relevant game and not revised with the benefit of hindsight. It is an essential read for any supporter of Carlisle United, but will also resonate with any supporter of a lower-league football club who has endured years (sometimes decades) of disappointment, despair and frustration before achieving that brief, but precious, moment in the sun.

Sunset Song is widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century. Chris Guthrie, the female protagonist, is a strong character who grows up in a dysfunctional farming family. Life is hard after her dad's death and she must take some tough decisions to save her farms under the inevitable threat of World War I . . . Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell (1901-1935), a Scottish writer famous for his contribution to the Scottish Renaissance and portrayal of strong female characters.

A truly mammoth football quiz book covering over twenty years of the Premier League and the entire history of the beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) game. All the major international tournaments are covered, as well as the full history of the domestic game, both recent and historical - even grandad can show off! Nick Holt has compiled a satisfyingly hefty and wonderfully challenging collection of 3,000 questions, arranged in quizzes of varying difficulty and subject matter covering the games that mattered, the personalities, the controversies, the goals and the glory. SAMPLE QUESTIONS It wasn't until 2007 that a South American player scored a Premier League hat-trick; who scored three in a 5-3 derby win over Wigan Athletic in December that year? There have been some noticeably bad-tempered Merseyside derbies in the Premier League era; which Everton player saw red at Goodison Park in December 2005, and again in October, 2007? Which two uncapped overseas players were the captains of Manchester City and Portsmouth respectively for the 2004-05 season? Germany 1, England 5: Who let in five goals for the only time in his international career? Italia 90: Who was the unlikely scorer of the game's only goal when England beat Egypt 1-0 in a group match of bewildering tedium? Italia 90: Defeat by which country in their opening match cost Scotland a chance of progressing past the group stage for the first time?