A moving story of how a legendary football team was lost to tragedy – and how this disaster irrevocably altered the lives of the survivors and the bereaved families, and ultimately brought shame on the biggest football club in the world.The Manchester United team Matt Busby had built in the fifties from the club's successful youth policy seemed destined to dominate football for many years. Such was the power of the ‘Busby Babes’ that they seemed invincible. The average age of the s...

In 1987, the Tour was won by Irishman Stephen Roche. It was the first time the champion had hailed from outside the Continent or the States and the first time in 20 years a British team - ANC Halfords - had competed in the world's toughest and craziest race. Jeff Connor not only stayed with the British team but also found himself an unofficial team member.In this long-awaited new edition of Wide-Eyed and Legless, now widely regarded as a classic, Connor describes what it t...

The untimely death of Dougal Haston in 1977 robbed climbing of one of its most charismatic, controversial and enigmatic figures. A man of extremes, who managed to combine a rock star's lifestyle with a career at the cutting edge of world mountaineering, Haston remains a cult figure whose deeds have inspired generations of climbers world-wide.Connor traces the career of a great climber from his native Scottish hills to his startling feats on Everest and the world's other great mount...

In 1987, a British-based team competed in the Tour de France for the first time in almost two decades. The ANC-Halfords squad were decimated by the punishing pace, the manager walked out during one of the Alpine stages, five of the nine riders and some of the staff never made it to Paris, and most of the personnel went unpaid. ANC were the definitive innocents abroad and it became one of the great sporting misadventures of all time.If that wasn't bad enough for ANC, a tabloid journ...

Drawing on first hand interviews from more than 75 British Lions tourists since the golden age of the fifties, this book captures what it means to be a British Lions rugby player – the historic victories, the glorious failures and the stories surrounding the icons of rugby such as Edwards, Bennett, Hastings, Guscott, Dallaglio and Johnson.The British and Irish Lions are one of the most famous and recognised teams in world rugby.Every four years, the Lions – selected from th...

The inside, in-depth and indiscreet story of a season with Britain's worst football club, East Stirlingshire. The Shire are lucky if all eleven players make it to a game, they have an average home attendance at their dilapidated Firs Park ground of 200 and they ended the 2004/05 season bottom of the Scottish Third Division – for the third consecutive year. Granted access to all areas, Jeff Connor gets into the dressing room, the board room and the dug-out. But, above all, he gets into the ...

Busby's Last Crusade is the never to be forgotten fable of Manchester United's rise from the ashes of Munich in 1958 to the European Cup win 10 years later … and the humble Scot who led them there.With words from best-selling author Jeff Connor and over 200 images, many of them new to the public, this is one man's search for his personal Holy Grail, and his determination to get there. This is not a eulogy for Sir Matt Busby. As Connor points out his roles as a club directo...

A pictorial history of Manchester United's rise from the 1958 Munich air disaster to a European Cup win ten years later, and the manager who led them there.With words from best-selling author Jeff Connor and over 200 images, many of them new to the public, this is one man's search for his personal Holy Grail, and his determination to get there. This is not a eulogy for Sir Matt Busby. As Connor points out, his roles as a club director after 1968 will always be ques...

From the heights of the Grand Slams to a near whitewash in the 2000 Six Nations championship, one factor has remained constant in Scottish rugby - its huge resource of characters.Early in the year 2000, Jeff Connor set out on a mission to track down some of Scotland's best-known players, the true giants of the game, and discover whether there is life after international rugby. The result was 40 exclusive interviews and a book that is enlightening, hilarious and moving in equal meas...

Learn to collaborate with others, think on your feet, and celebrate mistakes using the skills of improv theaterSo many of us go through life following scripts we didn’t write for ourselves—scripts designed by our family, shaped by our friends, and influenced by the expectations of the people we meet. But the script that worked when we were younger can impact us in different ways as adults and make it tough to get along in the world.Drawing from contemporary...

A clear and up-to-date introduction to linguistics. This best-selling textbook addresses the full scope of language, from the traditional subjects of structural linguistics (relating to sound, form, meaning and language change) to the more specialised subjects of contextual linguistics (including discourse, dialect variation, language and culture, and the politics of language). There are also separate chapters on language and the brain, computational linguistics, writing, and first and sec...

Learn to collaborate with others, think on your feet, and celebrate mistakes using the skills of improv theaterSo many of us go through life following scripts we didn’t write for ourselves—scripts designed by our family, shaped by our friends, and influenced by the expectations of the people we meet. But the script that worked when we were younger can impact us in different ways as adults and make it tough to get along in the world.Drawing from contemporary...