Bøker av Anton Rippon

The man behind Liverpool's foundation following a dispute with Everton.

The businessman whose ruthless political skills saw Arsenal leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur into the First Division. The manager who took Arsenal to a hat-trick of First Division titles after successfully appealing against a life ban imposed by the Football Association.

Explore the dark side of football, from match-fixing and corruption to riots and scandalous tragedies.It was Pelé who popularised the idea of football as 'the Beautiful Game' and so it is. But football also has its uglier side.As far back as the Edwardian era matches were 'fixed' to benefit gamblers, or to help clubs desperately in need of points to win promotion or to avoid relegation.There have been matches so brutal that on one occasion it was necessary for the BBC to precede televised highlights with a warning to viewers that what they were about see was 'appalling, disgusting, disgraceful'.Crowd disorders, inadequate policing, and stadiums left in disrepair have resulted in loss of life and added to the scandals that have scarred 'the Beautiful Game' and caused public outrage.From Bolton to Brussels, Manchester to Montevideo, Seoul to Santiago, football has seen many dark chapters, many tragedies and more than a few shady characters, from the goalkeeper who offered not to 'accidently' let in goals to the referee who was arrested with 13lbs of heroin hidden in his underpants.Soccer Scandals: When the Beautiful Game Turned Ugly tells of the high-ranking officials who were at the centre of some of the most remarkable widespread corruptions that football has ever seen, of the betting rings involving unscrupulous players and referees, of doping, blackmail and phone taps, of 'shameful savagery' on the pitch and riots off it, even of suicide and attempted murder.It is the stuff of pulp fiction rather than of just games and goals and Saturday heroes. It is the ugly side of the game that Pelé found so beautiful.

It might have ended 80 years ago, but we still have a warm, nostalgic relationship with the Second World War, due in no small part to the love we have for the entertainment from those turbulent times. Singers like Vera Lynn âEUR" the âEUR¿Forces SweetheartâEUR(TM) âEUR" Gracie Fields, Anne Shelton, and the Andrews Sisters, bandleader Glenn Miller whose fate is still a mystery, films like _Gone With The Wind_, _Casablanca_, _Mrs Miniver_, _In Which We Serve_, _Goodbye Mr Chips_, and morale-boosting radio programmes like _ITMA_, _Music While You Work_ and _Hi Gang!_ all helped Britain to stay calm and carry on as it sheltered from the bombs, worked long hours in munitions factories, and prayed that its menfolk fighting on land, sea and in the air to bring about victory would one day return home safely. _Wartime Entertainment: How Britain Kept Smiling Through the Second World War_ relives the wartime years, looking at the songs and the singers, at the role that the BBC âEUR" âEUR¿AuntieâEUR(TM) âEUR" played not only in entertaining the nation but also in keeping it informed, at how West End theatre survived the Blitz, and at the bands that played both the big dance venues and the village halls to raise spirits and, for a few hours at least, lighten the mood of those dark and dangerous days. The book considers the work of the Crown Film Unit that made short information and documentary films as well as longer drama-documentaries and even a few straight drama productions for the public in Britain and abroad, and at ENSA âEUR" the Entertainments National Service Association âEUR" that provided entertainment for British armed forces personnel both at home and abroad.

On the evening of Monday, 5th June 1944, the people of Britain went to bed with a sense of great events impending. They knew that any day now would come news of the battle that would forever alter the course of their lives, and the lives of their children and their grandchildren. The following day‿s morning newspapers and early radio news bulletins were full of the fall of Rome to the Allies, which had been announced the day before. But then, at 9.33 am on that Tuesday, came the brief announcement: Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, had begun landing Allied armies on the coast of France.‿ D-Day had finally dawned. _D-Day to VE Day_ tells the story of the last year of the Second World War in Europe, from the Normandy landings and on through the hard slog to that long-awaited day ‿ 8th May 1945 ‿ when Britain broke out the bunting, rolled out the barrel, and celebrated victory over Hitler. The air-raid sirens were silenced, the lights could be switched on again, and the boys would be coming home. In many homes, festivities were muted because the war in the Far East was still to be won, but for a few short hours at least, the nation could afford to let its hair down and dance in the streets. Using contemporary accounts ‿ interviews, newspaper reports and official documents ‿ of those final months, _D-Day to VE Day_ looks at life in Britain during those vital months, at the events that brought an end to war in Europe, and at the redrawing of national borders that would shape a new world order.

Full assessment of the events that led to the Second World War.

Life in Post-War Britain: "Toils and Efforts Ahead" tells what it was like to live in Britain as the nation battled to recover while still facing many hardships, including food rationing that, ironically, was to become more severe than that in wartime.

Dramatic accounts of living through the Blitz.

Illustrated with photographs of the event, this account looks at how the rise of the Nazis affected German sportsmen and women in the early 1930s. It reveals how the rest of the world allowed the Berlin Olympics to go ahead despite the knowledge that Nazi Germany was a police state.

When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, football came to an abrupt halt. Large crowds were banned, stadiums were given over to military use, most players joined up. This book captures the atmosphere of the time and tells the story of a unique period in football's history.