This is the first biography in over 100 years of the great Tom Morris of St Andrews, who presided over one of the most illustrious periods in the history of golf, who - more than anyone before or since in any game - stamped his individual character upon his sport and how, in large measure, made golf what it is today.Born in a humble weaver's cottage in St Andrews in 1821, by the time of his death in 1908, he had become a figure of international renown. When he was buried with all t...

In the early 1870s, the boomtown of Birmingham erupted in a series of vicious gang wars. Mobs of youths armed with stones, knives and belt buckles fought pitched battles in a struggle for territorial supremacy. Known as "sloggers", they drew their numbers from the workshops and factories that made guns, nails and jewellery, and lived cheek-by-jowl in overcrowded, insanitary slums.Author Philip Gooderson traces the history of these warring factions from their first appeara...

'COMPREHENSIVE' The Sunday Times'BEAUTIFULLY DETAILED' The Guardian'UTTERLY COMPELLING' Nottingham Forest News'WONDERFUL' Forbes'INTIMATE' FourFourTwo20th Anniversary Edition - Fully revised and updated.In this authoritative, critical biography, Jonathan Wilson draws an intimate and powerful portrait of one of ...

The first volume of this authoritative biography chronicles the prime minister's youth from birth to early adulthood: "An intimate, eloquent testimonial" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).Winston S. Churchill's son, Randolph, delivers a vivid, personal portrait of his father in this first part of an eight-volume biography that is widely considered the "most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written" ( The New York Times). Told thr...

The previously untold story of the hidden politics that went on behind the scenes during the handling of the Royal abdication crisis of 1936.The King Who Had to Go describes the harsh realities of how the machinery of government responds when even the King steps out of line. It reveals the pitiless and insidious battles in Westminster and Whitehall that settled the fate of the King and Mrs Simpson. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin had to fight against ministers and civil ser...

Long before the Kray twins, London was plagued by gang warfare as vicious as anything that was to come. From the 19th century onwards, violent mobs fought pitched battles for territory and local pride. The Bethnal Green Boys hunted Hackney's Broadway Boys, Clerkenwell took on Somers Town, the Red Hands prowled Deptford and the Silver Hatchets terrorised Islington, while the police and judiciary seemed powerless to stop them.The first-ever history of these intriguing street mobs tra...

WINNER OF THE 2013 PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR AUSTRALIAN HISTORYWINNER OF THE 2012 MANNING CLARK HOUSE NATIONAL CULTURAL AWARDCOMMENDED FOR THE FAW EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION AWARDFor Australia, a new nation with a relatively small population, the death of 60,000 soldiers during World War I was catastrophic. It is hardly surprising, then, that Australians evaluating the consequences of the conflict have tend...

Featuring a foreword by Sir Sean Connery.Scotland gave golf to the world. With more golf courses per head than any other country, it is still a golfer's paradise. They range from remote honesty box clubs to superb Open Championship courses and the busy clubs of the towns. Scotland's strength is the vast range of enjoyable and historic courses throughout the land which welcome visitors, be they players of professional standard or recreational golfers who play only f...

A moving narrative history of the professional footballers who fought and died in World War I, with a foreword by Gary Lineker.In 1914, as today, successful footballers were heroes and role models. They were the sporting superstars of their time; symbols of youth, health and vigour. Naturally enough, when war broke out they felt it was their duty to join up and fight. Between 1914 and 1918, 213 professional players fell in action. Some teams lost half their players...

"A sweeping riveting history that manages to capture the essence of the conflict, as well as the contributions of particular schools and individuals." — HMC Insight MagazineIn this pioneering and original book, Anthony Seldon and David Walsh study the impact that the public schools had on the conduct of the Great War, and vice versa. Drawing on fresh evidence from 200 leading public schools and other archives, they challenge the conventional wisdom...

By the end of World War I, 45,000 Australians had died on the Western Front. Some bodies had been hastily buried mid-battle in massed graves; others were mutilated beyond recognition. Often men were simply listed as 'Missing in Action' because nobody knew for sure.Lieutenant Robert Burns was one of the missing, and now that the guns had fallen silent his father wanted to know what had become of his son. He wasn't the only one looking for answers. A loud clamour arose from Australia...

McCrae's Own was the 'Heart of Midlothian Battalion' mentioned all too briefly in Martin Middlebrook's classic book The First Day on the Somme. Raised in Edinburgh shortly after the start of the Great War, it was perhaps the finest unit in Lord Kitchener's volunteer army - a brotherhood of sportsmen, bound together by their extraordinary colonel and their loyalty to a quaintly named Association Football club, the famous Gorgie 'Hearts'. McCrae's were blooded in the Battle of the Somme, los...