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'Give me the child until he is seven and I'll give you the man'.
So it was that as a seven year old boy growing up in Sheffield within sight of his team's ground, John was already obsessed with football and playing the bugle, in that order.
In typical style John took a bugle to a match in 1993 'just for a laugh'. The mystery bugler was identified and asked to form a football terrace band. John and the band were then given
the honour of being asked to play for England. Musically challenged, perhaps, but the most passionate, determined and best at generating an atmosphere anywhere on the planet.
John is in the process of writing his second book.
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John Firth is 47 and lives in Wakefield. He is married with a seven year old boy who has Autism. When
his son was diagnosed with Autism, he resigned his position to give the care and support that their son
desperately needed. He was not the sort of person to sit around doing nothing however, so he started up
a plumbing business that is now flourishing. What precious spare time that he has is taken up by writing
and obviously following Sheffield Wednesday, which is a huge passion in his life.
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Philip Algar, B.Sc. (Econ.) F.I.J., author of 'Goodbye Old Chap, A life at sea in war and peace', has written
five previous books. For many years, as a freelance editor and writer, he contributed regularly to UK and overseas
publications on energy, economics and crisis management. He also wrote a regular and humorous column, on business
topics, for a national newspaper and for a business magazine, but is now concentrating on writing books. Goodbye
Old Chap is the story of his father, a Merchant Navy captain, and his life at sea which spanned two world wars
and a long period of imprisonment in Germany.
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Jackie Toaduff, the son of a coal miner, was born in County Durham in the 1930's. He became a coal miner
and at the same time he was making a name for himself as a tap and clog dancer and became the British Clog
Dancing Champion eventually making 17 solo appearances at the Royal Albert Hall, his dancing admired by
the Prima Ballerina, Margot Fontain and he danced with the likes of Hollywood star, Ginger Rogers and
Princess Margaret (and then back to work down the pit the next day). He won a talent competition, which
eventually enabled him to leave the pit and become part of a double act, entertaining in theatres and
clubs worldwide.
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Andrea Jane Finney was born in 1966 in the village of Westhoughton, Bolton, Lancashire. She attended
Westhoughton High School and then Bolton College and now works in the Commercial Property Industry. Andrea
was married in 1990 to Nigel and has one son, Alex. From a very early age Andrea was fascinated with history
and Andrea has now transformed the lives of her ancestors into a fascinating book based on the true events
of the tragic Pit Disaster a century ago.
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A graduate of Brasenose College Oxford, Trevor Snow made teaching his career and was Head of Modern Languages
at Taunton School for over twenty years before starting up his own company taking people on holiday to France.
His love of France and long experience of visiting the country, including two periods of living there, have given
him a deep knowledge of the different regions and their culture. He lectures on a wide range of topics to do with
France. The Best of France is his first book.
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Lyndsey works for a Breastfeeding Support Company, supporting Breastfeeding groups in Derbyshire. She
is also Managing Director of EAT...Derby Magazine. She is married to Mike, and has two sons, Jacob (3)
and Nathanial (1) and a dog called Riley.
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Sudhindra Mokhasi is an author, columnist, award winning photographer and CEO of a technology firm. His
fortnightly column is published in Deccan Chronicle in India and Asian Age in India and London. He was
vice president with one of India’s leading IT- Business process outsourcing companies until 2007. Since
then, he is the CEO of a technology firm which facilitates information management systems aimed at bridging
the divides in Indian Society. He is an avid traveler and lives in Bengaluru, India with his wife Aparna.
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Dr. Gary Armstrong is a Reader in the School of Sport and Education, Brunel University, London. He previously
lectured in Criminology at the University of Westminster and the University of Reading. His research into
sports-related matters has produced various publications including: Football Hooligans: Knowing the Score, Blade
Runners: Lives in Football, and Sheffield United FC: The Biography.
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Matthew Bell is a mechanical engineer by trade but spends every spare moment writing about Sheffield United. He has edited
the United fanzine, ‘Flashing Blade’ for over twenty years and has written a weekly column in the Green ‘Un since 1993. He
was co-editor of the imaginatively titled books, ‘Blades Tales’ and ‘Blades Tales 2’ and has written articles for 4-4-2 magazine
and the 2003 Sheffield United v Arsenal FA Cup semi-final programme. Despite all this, he says that United’s results are
less important than the quality of his pre-match pint.
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George Wood is an English farmer who bought a small apartment in Majorca in which to relax with his family. Only
it didn't quite turn out like that.
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Tim Hanlon is based in Barcelona and has been covering Spanish football for the national news agency in the UK, the
Press Association, and other British media on a freelance basis, for the past seven years. Tim is an NCTJ trained journalist
and worked for agencies and newspapers in the North West of England, including the Manchester Evening News, before moving to
Spain. As the only British reporter to regularly cover training practices and speak to players, Tim has been in the ideal
position to write about the dramatic events as they have unfolded at the Barcelona club, as well as through living in Spain
to understand what Barça means to the Catalan people.
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Soumya Bhattacharya's first book, 'You Must Like Cricket?', was published to acclaim across the world in 2006. He is also the author of the novel, 'If I Could Tell You', which appeared on India's national bestseller list on publication, and was shortlisted for one of the country's biggest book prizes. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age (Melbourne), the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, New Statesman and Wisden. He is the Editor of the Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times and lives with his wife and daughter in Mumbai.
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Tony Berry, lead singer of the Houghton Weavers folk group for the past 35 years, tells in this first part, of growing up in deepest Lancashire. From childhood to the time he missed the Ali-Frazier fight because he ate his toast in bed! Tony tells his story with an enormous amount of wit and humour. It is interspersed with a history of the world as he saw it - he doesn't have very good eyesight! We hear how he started his musical career in the Social Clubs of Lancashire to meeting the other lads who would form in 1975 one of the most popular bands in the North West. The Houghton Weavers made their television debut in the BBC's talent show 'We'll Call You'. Within a couple of months they were given their own show, 'Sit Thi Deawn' which continued for six series over seven years and had the highest viewing figures for any regional T.V. programme. As well as their own show the Weavers have appeared on many other national TV programmes for both BBC and ITV including, 'Jim'll Fix It', 'This Is Your Life' and 'The Video Entertainers'. They have performed in six different series on Radio 2, starred in six pantomimes at top theatres in the North West, five of them as top of the bill. Their experience in the business together with their style and professionalism ensures that, as their motto says, they will always, 'KEEP FOLK SMILING'.
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Stuart moved to the Peak District ten years ago and lives in a hamlet established in the eighteenth century industrial revolution. In 1865, the hamlet was described as a small row of cottages, standing on a bleak and wild looking moor-like prominence, as if the buildings had been lifted out of the adjoining valley to look about them. That valley is dominated by Litton and Cressbrook cotton mills and Stuart was drawn into the fascinating history of the area. The research threw up many interesting facts but also left unanswered questions. Stuart's first novel Blincoe's Progress fills those gaps with a fiction set in the eighteenth century centred around local characters and events. He is also the author of Robert Blincoe and the Cotton Trade.
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Chris Coley was born in Birmingham. After studying Art he worked as a graphic designer before joining
the teaching profession in 1994 eventually becoming the Headteacher of a secondary school. He was
inspired to write his first novel, Amber Wolfe and the Shifters, by the courage and determination
of his own profoundly deaf daughter.
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While completing his working life as a management consultant specialising in presentation skills, Robert
Alan-Haven's passion for self-exploration led him to the world of the dolphins and their apparent kinship
with humankind. He has observed and swum with dolphins, in captivity and in the wild, all over the
world, and delights in writing and speaking about his adventures.
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Author, playwright and scriptwriter Bolwar Mahamad Kunhi (b. 1951) introduced Muslim culture into creative Kannada prose. He has eight short story collections, one novel, two stage plays and six children's books to his credit, besides several other editorial works. He was conferred three Sahitya Academy Awards from Karnataka Sahitya Academy, including a lifetime achievement award (1997). He has also won National Awards for his contribution to Kannada Films. His works have been translated into other Indian languages.
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John Butcher
Author location: Dubai
Latest Book: The Lethe Fund
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John Butcher landed his first full time journalism job on the Warminster Journal, one of England's few
remaining independently-owned newspapers. He entered the world of financial journalism in 2000, writing mainly
about the expanding international hedge fund business. Work took him from London to New York, where he began
writing his first book, The Lethe Fund, from an apartment in downtown Manhattan. Work on the book continued
in China, when he took a job working for the Beijing Review.
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Zoë Speakman grew up in the small town of Alcester in Warwickshire. After graduating from The University
of Sheffield in 1996 with a degree in English Literature, she went to teach English in rural China with
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) for two years. Since then, she has worked in both the voluntary and
university sectors, largely in training and advice roles. She became a primary school teacher in 2008. Her
experiences in her first teaching post in Rotherham inspired her to write 'Not Quite There', her first
novel.
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Martin Weinbren has been a social worker for over 30 years. He has also worked in the field of employment law. His
interests include music, cookery, travel and running (more as a spectator than a participant nowadays). Martin, who is
married with grown-up children, lives in the East Midlands with his wife, Janet and two dogs, Max and Tess.
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