Martin Knight | |
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Born | Epsom, Surrey, England | 21 December 1957
Occupation | Novelist, biographer |
Notable works |
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Website | |
london-books |
Martin Knight (born 21 December 1957) is an English author.
In 1999 Hoolifan and The Naughty Nineties were released; both books dealing with the culture of football hooliganism. Knight was co-author with Martin King whose memoirs form the core of the books. Irvine Welsh provided the introduction to the latter book. As partners, Knight and King produced "On the Cobbles" the story of Jimmy Stockin a renowned gypsy prize fighter, "Ossie – King of The Bridge" – the autobiography of Chelsea footballing legend Peter Osgood and "Grass" covering the exploits of major drug smuggler and Howard Marks' cohort Phil Sparrowhawk. In 2010 a copy of "Ossie – King of the Bridge" (among other items) was buried beneath the new statue of Peter Osgood unveiled at Stamford Bridge.
In 2000 Knight produced his first novel "Common People". In 2003 he collaborated with George Best on his final memoirs before his death, "Scoring at Half Time". In 2004 "The Real Mackay" was released being the autobiography of Spurs, Derby and Scotland footballer Dave Mackay. 2006 saw the launch of "Battersea Girl" a partly fictionalised account of Knight's grandmother and a biography of Chelsea, Dundee and Aberdeen footballer Charlie Cooke.
In partnership with author John King, London Books was launched in 2006. [1] King and Knight edited the company's first title "The Special Ones", a collection of memories and opinions of Chelsea fans and from 2007 books by vintage authors Gerald Kersh, James Curtis, Robert Westerby, Simon Blumenfeld, John Sommerfield and Alan Sillitoe were republished. [2] In 2009 "Gypsy Joe: Bareknuckle Fighter and Professional Golfer" was selected by The Observer as their Sports Book of the Year. [3]
In 2010, We Are Not Manslaughterers dealing with the events surrounding the Epsom Riot of 1919 was released. [4]
Knight wrote the introduction to London Books 2014 release of There Ain't No Justice by James Curtis, first published in 1938 and filmed in 1939.[ citation needed ] The following year Knight contributed to More Raw Material - Work Inspired by Alan Sillitoe. Knight and John King became friends with Sillitoe and met up regularly in the last ten years of his life at The Lamb and Flag pub near Covent Garden. They were sometimes joined by other Sillitoe admirers such as Sean Bean and the meetings became known as The Flag Club. [5]
Justice for Joan - The Arundel Murder was published in 2016. Knight investigates the circumstances surrounding the murder of Joan Woodhouse in Arundel in 1948. The case remains officially unsolved. In 2017, he wrote the afterword to the London Books' reissue of the Chelsea, Stoke, Arsenal and England maverick footballer Alan Hudson's autobiography The Working Man's Ballet.
Knight also had a long business career starting as a library assistant at the Financial Times and then working for Arab Banking Corporation in Bahrain before founding Presswatch Media now part of TNS and co-founding Precise Media which was sold to 3i in 2005. [6]
In 2018, I Ran With The Gang: My Life In and Out of The Bay City Rollers was released, written with founding member Alan Longmuir. Longmuir died as the book was being finished.
In 2021 "Cushty: A Romany Life" was published. Cushty was an updated version of "Gypsy Joe" written with Joe Smith. "Broken Wafers", Knight’s autobiographical account of his 1960s and 70s childhood was released in 2022 and in 2023 "Justice Killer" was published, this being Knight’s debut crime novel.
"Nefarious-My Life In Crime" written with former armed robber and Kray family and Joey Pyle associate Ronnie Field was released in 2024 following serialisations in the "Sunday Times" and the "Sun". It was made "Book of the Week" by the "Daily Mail".
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and are one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles". The group's line-up had many changes over the years, but the classic roster during its peak in popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother Derek Longmuir as drummer. The current line-up includes original guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, singer Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist/singer John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.
Peter Leslie Osgood was an English footballer who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for representing Chelsea and Southampton as a forward at club level, winning the FA Cup with each, and was also capped four times by England in the early 1970s.
Alan Sillitoe FRSL was an English writer and one of the so-called "angry young men" of the 1950s. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied. He is best known for his debut novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and his early short story "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", both of which were adapted into films.
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He received numerous accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy and a Writers Guild of America Award as well as nominations for four additional Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award. Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1995, Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Vinegar Joe were an English Blues rock band, formed in 1971 in London. They released three albums on Island Records, but were best known for their live shows and launching the solo careers of Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer.
The Chelsea Headhunters are a notorious English football hooligan firm linked to the London football club Chelsea.
Samuel Emerson "Slam" Bradley is a fictional character that has appeared in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a private detective who exists in DC's main shared universe. The character concept was created by DC Comics founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and developed by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who both later became more well known as the co-creators of Superman. As one of the first ever DC characters, the character first appears in the Golden Age of Comic Books in the anthology title Detective Comics, being introduced in the first issue. He later commonly was associated with Batman and other spinoff Batman characters when revived.
David Craig Mackay was a Scottish football player and manager. Mackay was best known for a highly successful playing career with Heart of Midlothian, the Double-winning Tottenham Hotspur side of 1961, and winning the league with Derby County as a manager. He also represented Scotland 22 times, and was selected for their 1958 FIFA World Cup squad. Mackay tied with Tony Book of Manchester City for the Football Writers' Association's Footballer of the Year award in 1969 and was later listed by the Football League in their "100 Legends", as well as being an inaugural inductee to both the English and Scottish Football Halls of Fame. He was described, by Tottenham Hotspur, as one of their greatest players and was known as 'the heartbeat' of their most successful ever team.
Charles Cooke is a Scottish former footballer. He played as a winger for Aberdeen, Dundee, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, before ending his career in the United States.
Eric Faulkner is a guitarist, songwriter and singer, best known as a member of the Scottish pop band the Bay City Rollers.
Justice League Task Force was an American monthly comic book series published by DC Comics from June 1993 to August 1996; it lasted 37 issues. At the time the Justice League was featured in three separate series: Justice League America, Justice League Europe (JLE) and Justice League Quarterly (JLQ). Justice League Task Force was a spinoff of Justice League Europe, a series which ran from April 1989 to May 1993. Like JLE, this team carried a United Nations charter which sanctioned their activities. In fact, JLTF was composed of several former JLE members. The team was called to action by Hannibal Martin, a representative of the U.N. He asked that Martian Manhunter select a "strike team" of fellow Justice League members and to "lead them on a very special mission".
Alan Anthony Hudson is an English former footballer who played for Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke City and the Seattle Sounders as well as the England national football team.
John King is an English writer best known for his novels which mostly deal in the more rebellious elements driving the country's culture. His stories carry strong social and political undercurrents, and his work has been widely translated abroad. He has written articles and reviews for alternative and mainstream publications, edits the fiction journal Verbal, and is the co-owner of the London Books publishing house.
Joseph Brian Mears was the chairman of Chelsea Football Club. He was the son of Joe Mears, also a chairman of Chelsea, and grandson of Joseph Mears, co-founder of the club. He was born in Richmond, Surrey, and educated at Malvern College. In 1950 he emigrated to Canada and began working life in a seed factory. He returned to the United Kingdom shortly afterwards and did his national service as a radio operator in the Royal Air Force.
Alan Longmuir was a Scottish musician and a founding member of the pop group the Bay City Rollers. He played the bass guitar, whilst his younger brother Derek Longmuir was drummer.
London Books is an independent publishers based in London, founded in 2007 by the authors John King and Martin Knight. It is notable for its London Classics imprint, which focuses on forgotten works of London working-class and realist fiction from the 20th century. London Books also runs a New Fiction list in the same spirit, and has released several non-fiction titles.
David Groves, better known by his birth name Patrick David Mackay, is a British serial killer who is believed to be one of the United Kingdom's most prolific serial murderers.
Karen Price was a 15-year-old Welsh murder victim who disappeared in 1981. After the discovery of her body in 1989, British facial reconstruction artist Richard Neave used her skull to create a model of her physical appearance. The reconstruction and the matching of DNA in the body to that of Price's parents allowed her body to be identified. The case was cited as one of the first instances in which DNA technology was used in this way.
The Boys of 86 are the West Ham United team of the 1985–86 season.
This article documents the history of Chelsea Football Club, an English association football team based in Fulham, West London. For a general overview of the club, see Chelsea F.C.