Bøker av John Gradwell

A slayer is on the loose and, in typical fashion, comedian Frankie Funnybone has blundered into the killer's sights. It is 1956 and Frankie's stellar career has hit the skids since we last encountered him five years before. The 41-year-old comic has resigned himself to an uneventful summer of shows at the end of the pier in Mellish, a rundown seaside resort on the Lancashire coast. But how wrong can you be! After narrowly escaping becoming the the fiendish Crossword Killer's third victim, Frankie realises the key to the mystery lies in what happened during the war to his cousin's husband Joe Trueman, who is leading the murder inquiry. Will Frankie survive to bring the curtain down on the killer's reign of terror? Or will he die on stage for the very last time?

ROY 'CHOPPER' HARTLE'The backbone of the club' - Gordon Taylor'Bolton Wanderers through and through and a legend' - Andrew Dean, BWFC Promotions Manager'A gentleman off the pitch but so committed on it' - Syd FarrimondRead the story of a man, the youngest of ten children, who became the toughest player in the Football League's most fearsome defence and was reckoned by many to be the best right-back never to play for England.A man who was part of the team which lifted Bolton's last major domestic trophy - the FA Cup - after a 2-0 triumph over Manchester United.A man who coached the manager who would later steer his team to World Cup Final victory.And a man who was proud to represent Bolton Wanderers at the opening of the new Wembley and one of only three BWFC legends to have part of the Reebok Stadium named after him.* Cover illustration by Walt Howarth. who wittily captures Roy's distinctive playing style in this cartoon from 2000. Walt, a big Bolton fan, first became involved with the Wanderers by drawing players for the match-day programme from the mid-1940s onwards. He also provided the art work for many children's books in the 1950s and 1960s and is best remembered for the illustrations he did for the Doctor Who annuals. Walt, pictured with Eddie Hopkinson, Roy and Nat Lofthouse, died in 2008 aged eighty. His ashes are scattered on the Reebok pitch.

At the age of 96, former music hall great Frankie Funnybone has decided to write his memoirs. This first volume of four sees Frankie mistaking Wallis Simpson for Jimmy Jewell, saving Neville Chamberlain from murderous Nazis in Munich and ensuring his posh pals Burgess and Maclean get off safely on their foreign holiday. Oh, and getting married at Balmoral with the King as his best man.