AUTHOR KICKS OFF! Satirical plays exposes the farcical world of money, power and sport in the 'beautiful' game. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: KPC Exall was born in the East Anglian City of Norwich, famous for its “mustard and celebrity cook Delia Smith”. He first discovered the thrill of football as a child and has been a supporter of his city's football club ever since, during the good times…and the bad ones. In addition to being a keen sport follower, KPC Exall is a mathematician by training as well as a chess enthusiast and globetrotter. He divides his time between Britain and Switzerland, where he lives with his wife Sylvie. CONTACTS KPC Exall Tel: (0041)21 9619247 Email: kpcexall@yahoo.com Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football

See a slideshow of some of the best books on South Africa to prepare yourself with all the essential background to the 2010 World Cup in the Rainbow Nation. Find travel books on South Africa, history, politics, safaris and sport. Amazon.co.uk Widgets Tags World Cup Pens World Cup football books

New football book titles out this month include El Nino: My Story , the autobiography of Liverpool's Fernando Torres, Glory Glory , Andy Mitten's interviews with Manchester United stars of the 1990s and 39 Days of Gazza , the sad story of Paul Gascoigne's ill-fated time in charge of non-League Kettering Town. Other new books popular in December are the Manchester United and Liverpool 2010 annuals - the kids love 'em. The top 3 selling football books in the UK at the end of the year are El Nino , The Goalie: My Story by ex-Rangers' keeper Andy Goram and Jellyman's Thrown A Wobbly by Jeff Stelling. New Football Books October Tags Soccer Books Football Books

New football book titles out this month include We Are The Damned United , another take on Brian Clough's ill-fated stay at Leeds in the 70s, written as a response to David Peace's classic The Damned Utd and an autobiography of BBC football commentator John Motson Motty: Forty Years in the Commentary Box . Other new books published in October are Aber's Gonnae Get Ye! an autobiography from St. Mirrin's hard man and alcoholic Billy Abercromby and Classic Football Debates Settled Once And For All by the two Dannies, Kelly and Baker - a comic look at the game. The top 3 selling football books in the UK are Why England Lose: And Other Curious Phenomena Explained , Sky Sports Football Yearbook and Taking The Tiss . New Football Books September Tags Soccer Books Football Books

New football book titles out this month include an autobiography of former Saints' icon Matt Le Tissier Taking The Tiss: My Autobiography , a biography of Eric Cantona Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King and a book on African football Feet Of The Chameleon .

Why England Lose & and Other Curious Phenomena Explained Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski ISBN: 0007301111 HarperSport ; Hardback, 352pp After Football Against the Enemy announced his arrival with a bang in 1994, every Simon Kuper book carries a huge weight of expectation. Why England Lose & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained keeps his reputation intact as one of the most groundbreaking football writers around. But Kuper is primarily a financial journalist and here he has teamed up with economist Stefan Szymanski to produce a unique take on the game, based on the cold truth of hard data. Conventional football wisdom is the enemy this time, and the pair apply statistics to explode what they feel are popularly-held myths about the game, starting with the belief that England under-perform. Their conclusion is that England actually over-achieve, based on their measure of success which takes population, GDP and soccer experience into account. They could do better, they argue, by encouraging more middle-class children to play football and controversially, reducing, not increasing the numbers of Englishmen in the Premier League. Another tenet of football belief they contest is that changing a losing manager is a wise move, while other chapters take fascinating angles - a transfer policy works best by selling your best players at the peak of their value, regional cities out-perform capital ones at club level for a reason, how the big clubs are anything but big businesses, why teams at the centre of Europe have an in-built advantage and why Japan will one day win the World Cup. Much is provocative and some of the minutiae fascinating e.g. blond players are consistently overvalued, but the book lacks cohesion, not helped by the graphic design and at times sounds a little smug. In style it resembles popular science hits of recent years like Freakonomics (the US title is Soccernomics ) and The Tipping Point , but though you will find yourself picking many holes in their theories, you will be hard-pushed to find a more thought-provoking football book. Their overall thesis that the received wisdom is unreliable while the figures don't lie may be true, but what a grey sport football would be without its magic, the blind faith and passion of its fans and the possibility of a Denmark (Euro '92) or Greece (Euro '04) coming from nowhere to win a major tournament. Read this book and keep the facts in mind, but keep hoping David still has some stones left in his slingshot. Sean O'Conor Buy this book from Amazon USA I UK I Japan

The Bromley Boys Dave Roberts

I once entered 'The Rising Dough Bakery', a small establishment in central Cardiff, wearing an Ajax t-shirt. The old Dutchman who worked there, well into his '70s at least, took one look at my attire and said with a wistful smile, "I used to play for them, you know." Half incredulous, I demanded he told me more, so he rolled off a string of hazy memories of football in wartime Amsterdam. I took his word for it but I still don't know if that old baker was telling the absolute truth and I didn't have the time to delve into the KNVB archives of a generation ago to put my mind wholly at rest.

In the wake of Liverpool's amazing comeback victory in the Champions League Final, the DVD of the match is highly popular and selling well. Visit our Liverpool FC bookstore for new books just published on Rafa Benitez, the 2004-2005 Champions League winning season, Joey Jones and the 1970s "golden age".