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Autobiography

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Call the Police – There’s a Comedian Around

A Funny – and Tragic – Memoir of Life in the Met

by Paul Byrne

On Sale late March 2024 – Pre-order your copy now

Paul Byrne joined London’s Metropolitan Police by mistake. By day a Detective Inspector, by night a stand-up comedian, this is a memoir of law enforcement not exactly going to plan. DI Byrne walked a tightrope of death, destruction and disaster, much of it caused by himself. From a near-death experience at the hands of the Australian SAS to causing a diplomatic incident with North Korea, it was a hell of a ride. Yet sucked into a dark and troubling whirlpool of police corruption, eventually he would be forced out of the service a broken man. Paul remains the only serving police officer to be mugged on duty – and the only one to be sacked for writing satire. His story shines an amusing, and at times horrifying, light into the darkest corners of Britain’s largest police force.

“A fascinating account – full of tragic and hilarious stories shot through with Byrne’s wonderful appreciation of the absurdity of life…” – ARTHUR SMITH

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Revelations of a TV Director – Royston Mayoh

by Royston Mayoh

Royston Mayoh was – and by reputation remains – one of the biggest names in British television production. In a career spanning seven decades, this writer and director turned actor and performer went from sweeping the studio floor at ABC TV studios in Didsbury, Manchester, to being recognised as one of the most prominent producers of his generation, responsible for such household names as Opportunity Knocks and This Is Your Life, earning the friendship and respect of their hosts, Hughie Green and Eamonn Andrews, in the process.
Later, his expertise was in demand in such countries as Belgium, Japan, India, Australia and the USA. He was a force behind Tommy Cooper shows, The Kenny Everett Video Cassette series and many major events.
Having found late-life fame in front of the cameras as a star of the ITV hidden camera show Off Their Rockers, nowadays he is most likely to pop up on screen in numerous commercials and cameo roles in such audience-pullers as Emmerdale and Death Comes To Pemberley. Here for the first time are his memoirs, a treat for any television aficionado. Lights! Camera! Action…
With a Foreword by Freddie ‘Parrot Face’ Davies

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Never the Easy Option – The Gareth Ellis Story

The Gareth Ellis Story – with Vince Groak

A shy, introverted rugby league-loving boy conquered the sport on both sides of the world, reaching the summit of the game while continually doubting himself.
Always prepared to work the hardest to achieve his goals, four times he faced life-changing decisions; to leave Wakefield, who gave him his start; depart from Leeds, when part of the club’s ‘golden generation’; turn his back on the NRL while at Wests Tigers, despite being the club’s player of the year on three consecutive occasions; and to choose Hull FC on his return to Super League.
On each occasion, as he reveals in candid detail, he never took the easy option. This book is the story of his glorious career, including the brave decision to come out of retirement in 2019.
Unashamedly open and honest, Ellis defines the nebulous concept ‘club culture’; reflects on his sacrifices to become one of the game’s most revered talents; how the international game – where he won 38 caps – must be improved; and reiterates that his sole aim in over 480 career appearances was to be the kind of player that others wanted beside them.
Never The Easy Option offers rare insight into what it takes to be a professional sportsman.

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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.

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The Winding Stair

From Morley Boy to Westminster Knight

by Sir Rodney Brooke

“Few, if any, public servants can match Sir Rodney Brooke’s 60-year record … six decades of unbroken service across local government, the NHS, education, utilities and beyond surely give him a unique perspective…” – The Guardian

Sir Rodney Brooke has had an eventful life at the sharp end – thanks to a career that led him from 15-year-old school-leaver in Yorkshire to the corridors of power at Westminster… and all points in between. In The Winding Stair, his sparkling collection of memoirs, he takes readers through its highs and lows – beginning as a reporter on his hometown Morley Observer newspaper and ending with a CBE, knighthood and honours from five more countries. In so doing, he reveals hitherto unknown details behind six decades’ worth of controversial headline moments and colourful personalities.

As a former chief executive of West Yorkshire County Council, he shares fascinating background into the mysterious death of Helen Smith in Jeddah; the Bradford City fire, in which 56 people were killed; and the handling of the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.

As Emergency Controller in the event of nuclear war, he was told to shelter in a Pennine underground lair – and restore order as Geiger counters said to emerge. Read how Halifax invented the guillotine; why dogs could bark at night in Otley but not Ossett; how the law told householders in Huddersfield to whiten their doorsteps before 8.00am or be fined five shillings; and why the press camped on his Ilkley lawn after he resigned over the notorious ‘Homes for Votes’ episode – when Dame Shirley Porter was surcharged £42.5m.

Accounts of how he organised the final reading of the Riot Act and interviewed a talking dog with Mrs Thatcher’s press spokesman, Sir Bernard Ingham, are found among tales of Princess Diana’s underwear in Roundhay Park, Princess Margaret and the cakes at Leeds/Bradford airport, sex and the Poll Tax, the murky Dolphin Square scandals and how Trafalgar Square very nearly became Nelson Mandela Square. For anyone interested in current affairs and the reality behind politics, The Winding Stair – From Morley Boy to Westminster Knight is not to be missed.

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