Good Afternoon Gentlemen The Names Bill Gardner

Download or read book Good Afternoon, Gentlemen, the Name's Bill Gardner written by Bill Gardner and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He arrived to rally the troops, the main man in the Inter City Firm and his greeting passed into football fan history. 'Afternoon, gentlemen, the name's Bill Gardner.' That introduction alone was often enough to provoke sheer terror in his opponents. He is a genuine legend to anyone who's ever stood proud on a football terrace. No serious book on the culture would be complete without at least one mention of him. And now at last, he's telling his own, long-awaited story. For the first time, Gardner himself reveals what made him the top man, including his innermost thoughts and his memories of the classic years for football fans. And many familiar faces have queued up to add their comments in this book which shows just what it is that makes Bill Gardner unique among the toughest and the greatest of them all.

Download or read book Bill Gardner: the Man, the Myth, the Legend written by Bill Gardner and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bill Gardner: The Man, The Myth, The Legend ★★★★★ Bill Gardner's childhood in 1950s East London was plagued by chronic vulnerability, due to shocking parental abuse. He endured relentless school bullying, unbearable solitude, mental health problems and homelessness by the age of 14. No value, no self-respect, no self-worth. However, between the late '60s and the early '80s Bill had changed. He was now acknowledged by peers, and the authorities alike, as British football's 'public enemy number one', as the terrace movement reached its most savage. Following his terrace 'retirement', his depiction in acclaimed movies including 'Cass' and 'Rise of the Footsoldier', alongside his citation in books, blogs and social media, fuelled a celebrity status he never craved. Autograph hunters had become selfie-seekers, and his terrace activities the stuff of legend. Yet, until now, only the closest of the close have known the real Bill Gardner, the one-time shy teen who craved acceptance from the 'West Ham family' - in his words, "the only family I ever had". Bill often wore a metaphoric mask in battle, and now even expresses certain degrees of regret. For the first and final time, Bill Gardner: The Man, The Myth, The Legend peels away that mask to reveal how a tragic past led to a ferocious future. As ever, Bill recalls this 'nature vs nurture' struggle in a brutally honest way.

Download or read book Naughty written by Mark Chester and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1985, forty hooligan followers of Stoke City FC experienced a riotous trip to Portsmouth - and the Naughty Forty was born. It became one of the most notorious soccer gangs in Britain.Mark Chester was a founder member of the N40. Already a hardened fighter, he had been expelled from school after an unsettled childhood and joined the Staffordshire Regiment, only to be discharged for misconduct. Stoke City's emerging 'casual' mob became his family. 'Right or wrong, I was ready to be a committed football hooligan,' he says.He recounts tales of raucous coach trips from the Glebe pub and the pivotal clashes with the likes of Everton, Manchester United and West Ham that defined the new firm. Formidable characters came to the forefront, men like the giant Mark Bentley, Philler the Beast and the legendary Miffer, while hair-raising clashes with the likes of Millwall, Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City saw the gang's reputation spread.The N40 code was simple: whatever the odds, they would always make a stand. Many times they fought when heavily outnumbered yet often came out on top. They developed a closeness and cohesion rare among the football gangs. Loyalty was their watchword.Soon they were joined by the Under-Fives, a younger element determined to win acceptance from the terrace legends they admired and who carved out their own niche as well as fighting side by side with the old-school heads.Police operations, bans from the ground and the introduction of ID schemes have prevented many from attending games, but the author, long 'retired' from the scene, argues that in the new millennium the gangs are back - and as ferocious as ever. NAUGHTY is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the illicit but seductive lure of terrace combat, the emotional ties of a gang and the addictive buzz of Saturday afternoons.

Download or read book Guvnors written by Mickey Francis and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A first-hand account of how Michael Francis and his brothers ran the Guvnors, a Manchester City based hooligan gang that wreaked havoc on the streets and terraces of Britain. Hard hitting and atmospheric, the story recounts Francis' childhood in the notorious Moss Side area of Manchester, his initiation into soccer thuggery, his rise through the ranks of the hooligan hierarchy, and the bitter clashes with other football gangs.

Download or read book Cass written by Cass Pennant and published by Blake Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He's been run through with a sword; He's been shot at point blank range; He's got reputation and respect as one of the hardest bastards in Britain... Cass Pennant is a man who lets his fists do the talking. One of the hardest men in Britain, he lives his life on the edge of the law, giving respect where respect is due and dishing out terrible retribution upon anyone who dares to cross him. Cass's life story reads like a Hollywood gangster movie. He tells the amazing stories of how he once saved the life of World Boxing Champion Frank Bruno when skinheads were attacking him with knives; and how he was shot three times in the chest in a South London nightclub but still kept of fighting. As Cass says, 'I've been a bad lad and I've done some good in my life but I'm not ashamed of anything I've done or the choices I've made. I don't owe anyone anything. It ain't nobody's business but my own...'

Download or read book My Name Is Bill written by Susan Cheever and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thoroughly researched and groundbreaking biography of Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, acclaimed author Susan Cheever creates a remarkably human portrait of a man whose life and work both influenced and saved the lives of millions of people. Drawn from personal letters and diaries, records in a variety of archives, and hundreds of interviews, this definitive biography is the first fully documented account of Bill Wilson's life story. Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide organization that since 1935 has helped people break free from the destructive influence of intoxicating and addictive substances. This great wave of comfort and help that has covered the world had its beginning in one man, born shortly before the start of the twentieth century. Utilizing exhaustive research, Cheever traces Bill Wilson's life beginning with his birth in a small town in Vermont, where, following the breakup of his parents' marriage, he was raised primarily by his grandparents. Handsome and intelligent, with a wit and charm that both women and men responded to, he seemed at the outset to be capable of achieving anything he wanted. Wilson, however, also suffered from deep-seated insecurity, and once he was away from the provincial Vermont town, he found that alcohol helped relieve his self-doubts and brought out the charm and wit that had made him a favorite in school. "Help" eventually turned to dependence, and years after his first beer -- consumed at a Newport, Rhode Island, dinner party -- Bill Wilson finally had to come to terms with the fact that, while he loved the way alcohol made him feel, his life was spiraling out of control. Through a painful process of trial and error, using a blend of experiences, ideas, and medical knowledge gained through several hospitalizations, he was able to stop drinking. A few months later, when he met Dr. Robert Smith of Akron, Ohio, and was able to help him stop drinking also, Alcoholics Anonymous was born. Each man found in the other the support he needed to overcome the hold alcohol had on them. Together they discovered the power they had to help other alcoholics. Success did not come overnight, however, and as Cheever compellingly relates, Wilson had many struggles in a life fraught with controversies, including experiments with LSD and an unconventional fifty-three-year marriage. As one of the most influential and important thinkers of the twentieth century, Bill Wilson changed the way our society deals with addiction, and his ideas in turn have benefited countless individuals and their families. His life was complex, and in Susan Cheever's fascinating biography, he emerges as a man of great passion and courage; it is a story fully told for the first time.

Download or read book A Most Wanted Man written by John le Carre and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-08-04 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A half-starved young Russian is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he?