Graham Sharpe

Dorothy Paget

Roger Schlaifer

How many times more likely are males to die in a bicycle accident than females? Or did you know that only one in fifty murder victims in the US is a white female?What Are The Odds? not only asks interesting and unusual questions, it provides revealing and often hilarious answers across a whole series of subject matters, including sex, love, death, sport, business and culture. For anyone who enjoys zany facts or strange trivia, the odds are they will love this book.

The Odds on Everything Book

What are the Odds?

Mihir Bose

This is the story of how a working class boy born into a family of 13 children in pre-World War I Birmingham grew up to revolutionize the world of betting and bookmaking. William Hill beat the odds by starting out as a teenage one-man band, making the rounds of Birmingham's factories, pubs, and clubs on his secondhand motorbike taking penny, tuppence, and tanner bets. He went on to launch a fixed odds soccer betting business which took a total of £6 18/6d in its first week, but grew to a multi-million pound turnover before being almost taxed into extinction. However, today, William Hill, whose first London office was opened in 1934, and staffed by just William and one clerk, is a truly global bookmaker, with offices in nine countries; operating across 19 time zones, it is a FTSE 100 company, has over 2,500 betting shops and employs nearly 20,000 people.

The Man and the Business

William Hill

Prostate cancer really is the little understood male killer. 1 in 8 UK males will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, more than 130 new cases are discovered each day and, on average, one man dies from the disease every 45 minutes. Despite these statistics, and the fact that there are getting on for half a million men living with, or in remission from, prostate cancer in the UK, the condition is rarely discussed publicly and most men ignore the warning signs. Graham Sharpe wants to help change that. Faced with a sudden and unexpected diagnosis, Graham managed - just - to overcame a desire to punch the medic charged with the task of telling him he had prostate cancer but who was keener to answer his mobile phone, and set about trying to catalogue what he went through en route to acquiring the condition and how he dealt with the grinding process of his treatment, despite having no idea of the ultimate outcome. Along the way he met and befriended many others undergoing the physical and mental stresses of treatment, emotional turmoil comparable with watching their favourite football team lose every game they play. In this intimate memoir charting his own personal experience of coming to terms with prostate cancer, Graham brings humour and a light touch to a serious subject. Combating the shortage of reading material written by anyone with direct personal experience of the disease, this book seeks to educate the ignorant, raise awareness of the risks and dispel myths - including the widely held belief that the name of the disease is in fact prostrate cancer. Here's one man's personal truth about getting, having and possibly surviving prostate cancer... 'This disease can be deadly. Please encourage the men in your lives to be aware of their prostate, before it's too late...' - Lauren Clark, wife of former England Cricket Captain Bob Willis who died of prostate cancer 'It's no secret, I'm no good with words but I do know about being diagnosed with cancer and my advice is read this book. Congrats Graham, informative, interesting and most importantly good advice - don't ignore the signs!' - Bob Champion CBE (Bob Champion Cancer Trust)

The Misunderstood Male Killer: Prostate Cancer

PROSTrATE CANCER

Racing Jokes, Risible Tales and Funny Stories

Horse Laughs

'You hold in your hand a miracle. A book about a passion, and the hipsters, oddballs and old heads who share it, written by one of their number, albeit a ludicrously erudite one' - Danny Kelly A revival of interest in vinyl music has taken place in recent years - but for many of those from the 'baby boomer' generation, it never went away. Graham Sharpe's vinyl love affair began in the 1960s and since then he has amassed over 3000 LPs and spent countless hours visiting record shops worldwide along with record fairs, car boot sales, online and real life auctions.Vinyl Countdownfollows his journey to over a hundred shops across the globe - from New York to New Zealand, Walsall to Warsaw, Oslo to Ozstralia, (old) Jersey to New Jersey - and describes the many characters he has encountered and the adventures he accrued along the way. Vinyl Countdown seeks to reawaken the often dormant desire which first promoted the gathering of records, and to confirm the belief of those who still indulge in it, that they happily belong to, and should celebrate the undervalued, misunderstood significant group of music-obsessed vinylholics, who always want - need - to buy... just one more record. A mesmerising blend of memoir, travel, music and social history, Vinyl Countdown will appeal to anyone who vividly recalls the first LP they bought and any music fan who derives pleasure from the capacity that records have for transporting you back in time. 'Graham Sharpe's journey around the second-hand record shops of the UK is full of laugh out loud anecdotes and wonderful observations. A great read not just for vinyl fans, but for anybody who has ever visited a record shop' - Graham Jones, author of Last Shop Standing (Whatever Happened to Record Shops), Strange Requests and Comic Tales From Record Shopsand The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen

Vinyl Countdown

Graham Sharpe has recruited some of the great and good of the gambling world to divulge their favourite betting suggestions, hints, tips, and strategies. Professional punter Dave Nevison reveals many tricks of his trade; Derek McGovern, self-styled betting guru of the Daily Mirror, speaks out in his usual flamboyant style; Jeremy Chapman, acknowledged master of golf betting tees up tips to lower your golf betting handicap; Tournament-winning poker pro, Julian Thew turns over a winning hand of hints; experts from the worlds of exchanges and spread betting give invaluable insights into the game; Top Tipsters like Dave Mitchell of The Mirror, Rolf Johnston of the Express, Tony Lewis of The Star and many others regale you with fascinating tactics designed to help improve the profitability of your betting. Sharpe also tracks down the best punting pointers, delving into the darkest corners, nooks and crannies of gambling lore in the process. Whether you are into racing, dogs, sports betting, exchanges, spread betting, poker or any other type of gambling opportunity, you'll find plenty in this unique book to benefit and enhance your own style of betting.

1001 Great Gambling Tips

Midfield Farewells, Sudden Deaths and Other Strange But True Passings from Football's History

The Final Whistle

One of the most comprehensive and useful ready reckoners ever published and, with a simple guide to settling bets which explains the short cuts and systems used by the professional bet settler, there is no bet that a Gentleman should not be able to calculate himself. This handy guide covers: • The settlement of all standard bets such as Singles, Doubles, Trebles, Accumulators, forecasts and much more • Details on how to calculate the newer and more esoteric bets • Short cuts to settling your bets • Chart which shows odds as a percentage • Achieving Value for Money • How to make a "book" • Tic Tac "sign language" chart of all the major prices - know what the bookies are "saying" • Full glossary of bets and betting terms

A Sporting Ready Reckoner

A Gentleman's Guide to Calculating Winning Bets

Graham Sharpe's life has been played out to a background of personally significant vinyl-related events, and his own large and ever-growing collection of LPs not only reflects his musical addiction, but also represents an intensely direct link to many of his key experiences. In this unique book he considers all the elements of record collecting which he loves - and one or two he doesn't - as he continues his long-term project to visit every surviving second hand record shop in his own and other countries, and reports on the many characters he has encountered, and the adventures he has accrued along the way.

The story of how the players of Manchester United and Liverpool conspired to arrange that United would win their game with Liverpool. As a result, eight players were banned for life, one lost his life, the reputations of the two clubs were tainted and football's image severely impaired.

The Inside Story of Football's Greatest Scam

Free the Manchester United One

Whether it be one pound on the National Lottery or a million pounds on the turn of a card, the instinct to bet is the same. Over the centuries there have been many strange gamblers – and even more strange gambles – and in this unique collection of punts and punters, Graham Sharpe reveals fearless, flamboyant and fantastic flutters. Some of the most extraordinary bets include the male gambler who had a boob job to win a big bet; the gambler who set off to walk round the world wearing an iron mask to land a wager; the man who could genuinely dream winners. Sharpe is also haunted by a couple of ghostly gambles, and looks at the betting propensities of US Presidents – including one who gambled away the White House's finest china. Celebrities who indulge in strange betting practices are unmasked, too – the Marx Brothers, Ben Affleck, James Bond, Kerry Packer, Richard Burton, Oscar Wilde, Professor Stephen Hawking, to name a few. This painstakingly researched, original and unusual offering is an overdue addition to the ever-popular 'Strangest' series – and you can bet on that!

Graham Sharpe

About

Books

Join the club