Three months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, two prizefighters named Charles ' Sonny' Liston & Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. stepped into a boxing ring in Miami to dispute the heavyweight championship of the world. America was in turmoil. Nobody knew who or what to trust.

Sport can offer catharsis in times of crisis, but not this time. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, & rumours were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Instead of a hero & a villain, boxing had served up two bad guys.

Against this backdrop of political instability, of a country at war with itself, in a time when ordinary African-American people were still being maimed & killed for the smallest acts of defiance, Liston & Clay sought out their own individual destinies.

Liston & Ali follows the contrasting paths these two men took, from their backgrounds in Arkansas & Kentucky through to that 16-month period in 1964 & 1965 when the story of the world heavyweight championship centred on them & all they stood for. Using original source material, it explores a riveting chapter in sporting history with fresh insight & in rare detail.





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Sport can offer catharsis in times of crisis, but not this time. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, & rumours were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Instead of a hero & a villain, boxing had served up two bad guys.

Against this backdrop of political instability, of a country at war with itself, in a time when ordinary African American people were still being maimed & killed for the smallest acts of defiance, Liston & Clay sought out their own individual destinies.

Liston & Ali follows the contrasting paths these two men took, from their backgrounds in Arkansas & Kentucky through to that sixteen-month period in 1964 & 1965 when the story of the world heavyweight championship centred on them & all they stood for. Using original source material, it explores a riveting chapter in sporting history with fresh insight & in rare detail.



...

Sport can offer catharsis in times of crisis, but not this time. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, & rumours were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Instead of a hero & a villain, boxing had served up two bad guys.

Against this backdrop of political instability, of a country at war with itself, in a time when ordinary African American people were still being maimed & killed for the smallest acts of defiance, Liston & Clay sought out their own individual destinies.

Liston & Ali follows the contrasting paths these two men took, from their backgrounds in Arkansas & Kentucky through to that sixteen-month period in 1964 & 1965 when the story of the world heavyweight championship centred on them & all they stood for. Using original source material, it explores a riveting chapter in sporting history with fresh insight & in rare detail.



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For centuries, Edinburgh has been home, inspiration & muse to writers. Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark, Sir Walter Scott & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were born in the city. John Buchan, J.M. Barrie & Robert Burns lived there. Visiting literati who praised & condemned it include Dickens, Defoe, Tennyson, Thackeray, Dr Johnson & George Eliot, while poets Robert Garioch, Sorley Maclean, Norman Mac Caig, Alan Bold & Hugh Mac Diarmid drank Edinburgh pubs dry in the 1950s, '60s & '70s. The city has inspired classic & controversial works of literature such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Regeneration & the novels of Irvine Welsh & Ian Rankin. Edinburgh's main railway terminus, Waverley, was named after the novel by Sir Walter Scott, & how many other cities can boast a memorial to a native author that dominates its skyline as does the Scott Monument on Princes Street? Added to this, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is now the largest book festival in the world. Exploring Edinburgh's literary past & present is synonymous with exploring & traversing the great city itself
- a city which truly deserves the accolade World City of Literature.
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The last snows of winter are melting away & Little Albatross sits snug in the warmth of Mother Albatross' feathers. He grows bigger & stronger until one day Mother & Father Albatross go fishing together, leaving Little Albatross alone for the first time. Will they return in time to save him from the killer bird who is watching, waiting... ? ...

The real-life stories of the novice monks in Little Angels reflect the lives of many youths in rural Thailand who are trapped ...

The real-life stories of the novice monks in Little Angels reflect the lives of many youths in rural Thailand who are trapped ...

We've brought together some of today's hottest writers to give you nine short stories to enjoy wherever you are this summer
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A is for animals. All the animals are asleep.B is for box. Bramwell Brown has a big box of buttons.C is for cake. Bramwell is cutting a piece for Camel. With Jane Hissey's classic illustrations, a simple text & an alphabet to follow on every double page this is the perfect companion for young children learning the alphabet. ...