ANDY DOUGAN

Mary Shelleys 1818 novel, Frankenstein, introduced readers around the world to the concept of raising the dead through scientific procedures. Those who read the book were thrilled by this incredible Gothic adventure. Few, however, realised that Shelleys story had a basis in fact. What she imagined as her modern Prometheus was a serious pursuit for some of the greatest minds of the early 19th century. It was a time when scientists genuinely believed, as Frankenstein did, that they could know what it feels like to be God.Raising the Dead is the story of the science of galvanism - named after the Italian scientist Luigi Galvini who had conducted the original experiments - a movement that investigated the theory of animal electricity, a unifying vital spirit that animates us all, its leaders believing that they stood on the brink of immortality.While they ultimately failed in this challenge, their studies mapped out the nervous system and made valuable and enduring contributions to modern-day medical knowledge and understanding - from theorising the concept of the modern-day defibrillator, and deep brain stimulus which is used to treat personality disorders, to experimental procedures involving the use of microchip-controlled devices to bridge damaged spinal nerves.

Andy Dougan draws on first-hand interviews with some of De Niros closest friends and colleagues. The result is a revealing and sometimes startling account of an intensely private man. While previous biographies of De Niro have only scraped the surface of his complex character, this sensitive and perceptive portrayal lays bare the psychological and emotional scars that De Niro has sought to hide for so long.

Previously published as The Hunting of Man One shot, one kill: a cultural and military history of the sniper since 1643, when the first shot was fired by a sniper during the battle for Litchfield in the English Civil War, to the present day, when the sniper has become the embodiment of contemporary military strategy and technology. Since Robert Greville, Lord Brooke, commander of the Parliamentarian forces, was struck in the eye by a marksman positioned on the spire of Litchfield cathedral, the story of the sniper has been one of the gradual empowerment of the individual soldier over the massed battalions. As military technology evolved to produce lighter, and quieter firearms that could strike with accuracy over longer and longer distances, so the role of the talented individual marksman has become more central to the outcome of military conflicts. Andy Dougan tells the story of the sniper as seen in the wars of Vietnam, the first and Second World Wars, the American Civil War, the Boer War and European conflicts and up to the present day when the sniper is not only a battlefield phenomenon but a terrorist in civilian society of almost phantom-like elusiveness. In three hundred and fifty years the history of the sniper has, more than any other military history, been the story of individuals: of high-profile victims such as the Union General Sedgwick, whose legendary last words were They couldnt hit an elephant at this distance to the celebrated shooters. Sniping has more mythology than any other aspect of warfare, more mystery too. Because the sniper does not participate in a war fought between huge killing machines at great remove from their victims. With the sniper, there is selection, identification and deliberate execution. In short, its personal. Andy Dougan, author of Dynamo, has written an engrossing human history of the men and women who have taken up the gun to expert and deadly effect.

In 1942 at the centre point of World War II an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen. When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept east, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraines capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the citys defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, argaubly the best in Europe before the war. Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery. Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of which the team win handsomely, to such an extent that they inspired Kievan spirits. The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal. Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction and restoring to the centre of World War II a moment of extraordinary poignancy and complex bravery, of which the cliche is demonstrably true: football is not a matter of life or death; its much more important than that.

40 years ago a group of eleven young men stood in the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon and faced a crowd of 77,000 and the mighty Inter Milan. They were the first British team ever to reach the final of the European Cup. Indeed it was the first time their club had even played in the European Cup. And yet they faced one of the richest teams, with a fearsome reputation and an unbeaten defensive strategy. But these men would go on to make football history...Told by a life-long fan, The Lisbon Lions follows the fortunes of eleven men born within 20 miles of Glasgow who had come to play for a football team struggling in the League. Reinventing the team with his positive playing strategies, manager Jock Stein guided Celtic to victory in the Scottish championships and eventually to the European Cup itself. Andy Dougan takes us on the thrilling journey with Celtic as, round by round, the teams passion, inventiveness, and above all style brings them to the biggest game in their clubs history. The story remains as romantic, inspiring and stirring as ever.