Showing results by author "John Ludden" in All Categories

A short story. The legendary, Colombian narco king Pablo Escobar loved his football. As he led the biggest cocaine cartel in history, as Medellin became his personal fortress, Pablo lived out his soccer dreams through Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellin. But typically because of the measure of the man, it was more of a nightmare that came cursed with so much blood on the ball.

From the blood soaked killing fields of Bosnia and Afghanistan, Wooden Sword tells the story of two childhood friends from Birmingham. Alan Howard and Ali Asif. As young boys they both spend many a summer enjoying magical holidays on Llandudno’s West shore in North Wales. Together with the wooden swords, fighting off invisible enemies of black knights on the vast, deserted beach. Come their teenage years, the boys grow apart. Because of his love of animals, Ali trains to be a vet, whilst Alan joins the army and serves in Bosnia. Years later, whilst home on leave Alan meets up once more ...

Kyiv, begins on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 23rd February 2022. A young lady street violinist is electrifying her audience. Leaving them spellbound. We swiftly go from music and magic to once upon a time back in Nazi occupied Ukraine, the summer of 1942. We tell the story or maybe more of a legend about a football match that took place. The likes never witnessed before or since. It was a contest between Dynamo Kyiv and their German overseers. One where the prize for victory was no medal or trophy. Just death by firing squad. Yet, the Ukrainians of Kyiv still played to win? ...

CHE GUEVARA. ONCE UPON A TIME IN IRELAND. A stormy, hellraising, black rain-lashed sky. Che and his entourage are on a plane returning home to Cuba from a conference in Prague. and have to make an emergency landing at Ireland’s, Shannon airport. So, begins a remarkable evening. When one night in Limerick, Che Guevara entered Hanratty’s bar and what happened next would become ingrained in the rich tapestry of Irish folklore. RODOLFO JORGE WALSH. THE TYPEWRITER AND THE GUN. This is the story of a revolutionary with a typewriter, one who died as he lived, fighting with everything he had at...

From Newton Heath, 1878, to Kobbie Mainoo’s winner in the 2024 FA Cup final. Sixty four chapters and 120,000 words taking in the history of Manchester United. A Collection of chapters and articles from the large selection of work both non-fiction and novels I have published over the years on Manchester United. The Promise A Tale of Two Cities Manchester United/Real Madrid 1957-68 From the Stars: Revised Edition: 1968-74 Barca 84 A Postcard From The Nou Comp: 26/5/99 Munich And The Flowers Of Manchester And Robbo Pulls A Hamstring Northern Soul Duncan Edwards: All The Time In The World ...

2024. The infamous leaders of the Ortega drugs cartel, (the largest in the world) the twins, Miguel and Carlito travel from Mexico City to Sinaloa, intent on taking over. On arriving by train, in just two hours they are turned around and put on another train back home. Sinaloa pertains to tell this astonishing tale. How the five main Sinaloa cartels came together for just a short period burying all feuds to ensure the Ortega twins were sent packing. A story of high level corruption at the highest levels of the Mexican and United States government. Of friendship, courage and ultimately, ...

...In the midst of a legendary ferocious storm on September 23 1973, five fishermen off Ireland’s West coast trapped a mermaid in their nets. What happened that night unleashed a power and vengeance beyond human comprehension. One so powerful that sixty-one years previously it had wreaked revenge on the ship they said was unsinkable. The magnificent, grandiose RMS Titanic. As the fishermen voted whether to keep or throw the mermaid back, she shed a tear, closed her eyes and passed away. For this heinous sin against the sea those involved paid an unholy price. Terrible losses and tragedy ...

Manchester, 1974, and seven-year-old Nicky Welsh is about to set foot in Old Trafford for the first time. This is the beginning of a five-decade love affair with football and a passion for Manchester United that will define Nicky’s life for ever. My United Road tells the true story of the fan who made it onto the pitch - almost. Signed for Manchester United from school as an apprentice, then a professional, surrounded by legends in the making, Nicky found himself on the cusp of a brilliant football career...which never happened.

...Dragonfly tells the story of two young soldiers from Manchester. Tommy Conlon and Colin Lindsay. On the day of the Manchester bombing back in 1996, the two boys are ten-years-old and playing in Bogart Hole Clough. They are being observed by a strange looking Dragonfly. Suddenly, Colin catches the insect off guard and grabs it. He gently holds for a second then let’s go. The ‘Magical’ Dragonfly remains unharmed and is grateful. It decides to stay with the two boys until their very end. Twelve years later now both Paratroopers, Colin and Tommy are supposedly killed in action in ...

The NORTH CALLING: A selection of twelve of my favourite short stories. We begin with THE LAST ACTOR: A tale of the apocalypse. Then we go back to 1958 with AUTOGRAPH: A young boy so desperate to get Duncan Edwards signature. ONE LAST TIME: Set on the night of the Manchester Arena bomb. SMALL FACES: This tells of L.S. Lowry’s heart-breaking encounter with a small boy whilst sketching Going to the Match. FRANK AND HARRY: Frank Sinatra’s 1950’s late night adventure in Manchester alongside a Manchester bobby. A CLOWN’S LOT: This transports us back to Belle Vue circus where three clowns...

The great science fiction writer Issac Asimov once wrote ‘‘today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact.’’ So, it proves as we begin in a place of conspiratorial legend and intrigue. The Nevada desert, 83 miles north by north west of Las Vegas. Area 51. Here an historical meeting is taking between humans and AI astronauts set to be the crew for a forthcoming manned mission to Mars. The story moves on to Washington, the White House where something goes terribly wrong. As the world hold its breath a press conference is held where the word ‘‘No’’ is spoken and all hell ...

…It began on 5th July 1984. A most beautiful day in the Italian south. With 70,000 screaming Neapolitans roaring out his name in the San Paolo stadium, Diego Armando Maradona arrived under the shadow of Mount Vesuvio in Naples, and for seven years all hell was let loose! For so long the ailing giant SSC Napoli criminally underachieved. Their fanatical support unequalled in both passion and size across Italy. A history dramatic, explosive and tragic. Like the finest Italian operas it always ended in despair. Then came Maradona. Blessed with a ball at his feet on the field, hopelessly ...

Once upon a time. It began on 5th July 1984. A most beautiful day in the Italian South. With 70,000 screaming Neapolitans awaiting him and roaring out his name in the San Paolo stadium, Diego Armando Maradona arrived under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, and for seven years all hell was let loose. For so long the ailing giant SSC Napoli criminally underachieved. Their fanatical support unequalled in both passion and size across Italy. None had ever been more feared or hated, but how they ached for success. A history dramatic, explosive and so damned tragic. Like the finest Italian ...

George Orwell once claimed: “Football has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.” From the killing fields of the 1916 Somme, to the Azteca stadium in 1986. A selection of occasions when the beautiful game has been used both as a weapon and indeed a field for revenge. And much more. As the bullets flew and the bombs dropped the game has always continued on and on...

In the ancient, cobbled, backstreets of Budapest, that lie in the shadow of the Blue Danube, there sits a bar called Hat Harom. It was once frequented by a band of proud, old men. Sadly, they are all gone now. When they did gather together to reminisce, the conversation almost inevitably turned to a murky, November, Wembley afternoon, way back in 1953. And another far, less, happier, occasion under driving, Swiss rain, the 1954 World Cup final. The ‘Miracle of Berne’ the Germans labelled it, those of Magyar persuasion thought far differently. A period of Hungarian dominance when these ...

Once upon a Time in Manchester, is a novel based on the supposed Kray twins visit to Manchester, in the late November of 1963. There has been a thousand tales, all the stuff of legend and myths. My book is simply a take on what is one of the most fascinating and controversial gangster fables of our time. A story filled with colourful characters lighting up what was deemed a miserable, former ''Cottonopolis'' of the north. A city still recovering from World War two, its infrastructure a landscape of debris and broken buildings flattened by the Luftwaffe, but one teeming with intrigue and ...

A short tale... The immortal line of ‘‘Where did it all go wrong?’’ is normally associated with George Best and his spectacular wine and women induced fall from footballing grace, but it can also be asked of another footballer. The greatest of them all. Diego Armando Maradona. First the two seasons in Barcelona. A mere aperitif of controversy and mayhem for what was set to follow. A tumultuous, footballing epic with a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and directed by Sergio Leone. El Diego’s unforgettable time under the volcano in Naples.

A teenage Diego Maradona shortly after Mundial 78, claimed: ‘‘The ball is always clean.’’ Diego was always a dreamer, such an opinion has to be applauded even if sadly looking back now nothing more than a young boy’s naive comment. From the dawn of the game being born there has always been far too much blood on the ball. Football stolen and used as blunt tool, a weapon to control and influence the masses. In 1982, as the Falkland/Malvinas conflict raged, Maradona flopped in his first World Cup, Espana 82. He was targeted by giants and ultimately self-exploded and got sent off. ...

This is the story of the extraordinary Italian winger, Luigi ‘‘Gigi’’ Meroni. They nicknamed Gigi the ‘‘Butterfly’’. A footballer of such beauty who captured the hearts of all both on the pitch and off. A fifth Italian Beatle. He loved Bob Dylan. He painted, he played the guitar. All Gigi ever needed was love and a ball at his dancing feet. Tragically, Gigi was taken far too young in what appeared to be a curse on Torino Football club. For Gigi Meroni gave hope to the Granata supporters in the horrific aftermath of the Superga air crash, that wiped out what is considered to ...

Part One George and the Time Machine is a bitter-sweet, funny and sad series of children's books. Set during the Second World War, they are full of magic and nonsense, whilst telling the astonishing tale of ten-year-old George Hawkins. After his Father, Frank is killed at Dunkirk, George and Mother, Anne, are left to fend for themselves in the terrifying, 1940 London Blitz. However, their lives change forever after one night in an underground air raid shelter, where they were supposed to have been safe from German bombs. The next day, George and Anne head home to discover by letter, they ...