Neil Palmer – författare

Welsh football legend Trevor Ford was not your typical football player from the forties and fifties. In a era where football club owners held all the cards, and were more than happy with the £20-a-week maximum wage given to the game’s stars, Ford was a man who knew his own worth and challenged the status quo. A fearsome centre-forward loved by the fans he played for, and a villain to the opposition, he filled stadiums and ruffled a few feathers on and off the pitch.Born in Swansea in 1923, Ford played for Swansea Town, spent three seasons as Aston Villa’s top scorer, and in a debut for Sunderland against Sheffield Wednesday, scored a hat-trick, broke the opposing centre-half ’s jaw, charged the Wednesday ,keeper into the net and broke a goalpost.Returning to his native Wales in 1953 to join Cardiff City, he was banned from the game for two years after admitting receiving illegal payments while at Sunderland. Ford left the Welsh capital in 1957 after more run-ins with Cardiff manager Trevor Morris. He then joined PSV Eindhoven in Holland as his two-year ban from the British game kicked in, which may have led to his exclusion from the Welsh World Cup squad of 1958.Join author Neil Palmer as he details the career of a man whose goal tally was 175 goals in 349 games, scoring 23 goals for Wales in 38 appearances, making him Wales’s second highest goalscorer of all time.

Twenty Bristol City legends tell the stories behind their favourite ever games for the club - enabling fans of all ages to relive these magic moments through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, pulling on the famous red shirt. Bristol City Match of My Life leads the reader through the highs and lows in the words of the players who made the fans' dreams - and, at times, nightmares - a reality. The heart-stopping accounts include the celebrated conquering of mighty Liverpool during the 90s, promotion to football's elite back in the 70s and also the dark days of the 80s when the club almost went out of existence. This powerful collection of stories by City heroes such as John Galley, Geoff Merrick, Mike Gibson, Bob Taylor and Louis Carey is a must for every generation of City fans. Covering the 60s to the present day, the footballers' own stories create an evocative record of the changes within the game. Only one thing never changes, and that's how much this wonderful club means to each player.

'He's here, he's there, he's every-f*cking-where, Gerry Gow, Gerry Gow' was an anthem that could often be heard reverberating around Ashton Gate in the 1970s as Bristol City climbed towards the first division. Gow was one of football's original cult heroes that emerged throughout the seventies and eighties; often sporting long hair and bushy moustaches. Gow pulled off both with style during spells at Bristol City and Manchester City. Written with the help of the Gow family, He's Here, He's There: The Gerry Gow Story celebrates the career of the Ashton Gate 'Enforcer'. It provides a fascinating insight into a player that fans of a certain vintage consider the greatest to wear the red of Bristol City. With fresh insight from Gerry's family, friends, team-mates and opponents, including the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Peter Reid and Chris Kamara, this is a captivating insight into a cult hero, a football hardman, a Bristolian icon; but also Gerry the man, and a man sorely missed but still loved by so many.

Local Hero: The Geoff Merrick Story is the most anticipated book on any player ever to pull on the red shirt of Bristol City. An England schoolboy international, Geoff turned down a host of top teams to sign for his local club. He became the Robins' youngest captain at 18 and eventually led them back to the top flight. During City's stay in Division One, Merrick was seen as one of the country's top defenders, but his life and career were thrown into turmoil when he and seven other players were asked to rip up their contracts to save the club from bankruptcy. This they did, and today their sacrifice is commemorated by a plaque outside Ashton Gate, yet it still goes down as the blackest time in City's history. It is a chapter in Geoff's life that he has never spoken about in depth - until now. When life threw Geoff and his family a cruel twist, he showed the qualities of bravery, self-belief and determination, the very traits that had characterised his performances on the pitch. Local Hero is the ultimate tale of not giving up.