Books
Revelations of a TV Director – Royston Mayoh
by Royston Mayoh
Harvey Hippo Finds His Talent
Written by George Griffin. Illustrated by Bureta Faraimo
Harvey the Hippo is excited as he prepares for sports day at school. He is ready to throw, jump, run, climb and swim – but what will he be good at in this uplifting rhyming tale of perseverance and belief?
Find out by reading this charming children’s book, written and illustrated by professional rugby league players George Griffin and Bureta Faraimo, as they too reveal their hidden talents.
Never the Easy Option – The Gareth Ellis Story
The Gareth Ellis Story – with Vince Groak
Salford Red Devils 150
A Comprehensive Record 1873-2022
By Graham Morris
Salford Red Devils are one of Rugby League’s most celebrated clubs, claiming a history going back to 1873. During the 150 years since, it has claimed numerous honours including six championship successes and eight Challenge Cup final appearances, four of them at Wembley. In 1934, the team achieved legendary status when touring France, their adventurous attacking play earning the accolade Les Diables Rouges – the Red Devils, a sobriquet officially appended in 2014.
Some of rugby’s most most revered names have worn the famed red jersey including Harry Eagles, who played in every match of the inaugural British rugby tour to Australasia in 1888; Welsh greats Gus Risman and David Watkins, both of whom are included in Rugby League’s Hall of Fame; and Jimmy Lomas and Chris Hesketh who – along with Risman – share the honour of captaining a Great Britain touring side. The club continues to produce exciting, entertaining rugby, evidenced by recent prestigious Man of Steel awards to half-backs Jackson Hastings and Brodie Croft.
Rugby League historian Graham Morris pays due homage to all of Salford’s heroes, past and present, via a comprehensive and wide-reaching set of facts and figures covering every match and every player known to have represented the club since its formation. Backed by over 80 superb photographs and images, several in colour, this is the perfect reference book for Salford Red Devils supporters and Rugby League fans in general.
Wrestling in Honey
The Selected Writings of Martin Kelner
With an introduction by Gary Lineker
‘By popular demand’ is one of those phrases like ‘we must do lunch’ and ‘your delivery will arrive between 9.00am and 10.00am’ that we have learned to take with a pinch of salt.
But in the case of the pieces in this book it is arguably true.
Admittedly, we only have the author’s word for it, but he swears that barely a week goes by – okay, a fortnight – without him receiving an email or a Tweet asking why an adoring public can’t enjoy his gimlet-eyed take on broadcast sport and addiction to half-remembered street jokes in the press or online these days.
The answer is that the current broadcasting landscape means we are all streaming madly or scrolling through our phones at different times, meaning a joke about the late football commentator John Motson’s jacket, which might have played to an appreciative audience of millions a decade ago, might now evince no more than a puzzled frown.
However, on rescuing these pieces from the dustbin of history – Martin’s laptop actually – there seemed merit in the view that a half-decent joke is a half-decent joke whenever it’s told. We think there are a few in this collection.
Where possible we have tried to supply a bit of context, and there are fragments of memoir too, previously unpublished, for anyone interested in the author’s ‘journey’ – as publishers seem contractually obliged to call everybody’s life these days.
We need a laugh in these difficult times – unless there’s been a recent economic miracle, in which case disregard. The good news is that age has not withered those in this long-awaited volume, nor custom staled their not quite infinite variety.
