Hi Everyone! 31st October 2025
It’s arrived, Ghost Gig, the third in the Stella Butler trio of novels! Click on the cover image to order your copy from Greenwich Exchange. Lovely Xmas present for a loved one? More info in black box opposite!
Also in this edition, the new Alex James paperback from Empire Publications. One click and it's yours!
Hi Everyone,
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Welcome to the latest JohnnyHarding.com!
In this edition you’ll find some changes to the format. A new tab called Stories has been added and I’ll be posting a new tale every now and then. The first is called The Golden Eagle of Greifswald. I hope you enjoy it.
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Some of you will have seen that the great jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine has passed away. A number of her songs have featured on the site. I attach a new one with lyrics by Ralph Hodgson called The House Across The Way. It’s in the Theatre and Poetry section.
25 September 2024
​Next month’s edition of Blizzard will contain a piece I’ve written concerning a football film that starred Diana Dors. Look out for it – and her!
Where Jack Kid Berg is concerned, take a look at a small video I made recently concerning his Life and Career posted in the This Week section. Lots of good pics and moving vids of Jack…with song by Colin James Hay called Looking For Jack.
Finally, with the publication of Ghost Gig imminent, I thought avid readers might like the read the Prologue to the tale…Go to Latest Works where you’ll find the cover and the link.
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All the best,
John
9 June 2025
This edition kicks off with another in the popular Kid Berg Tapes series, recorded in the late 1980’s. In this tape Tommy Dix remembers Jack Kid Berg.
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Still with sports, a piece I wrote for Blizzard about the great Billy Meredith and how his under-the-counter payments saw the downfall of the first Manchester City trophy-winners features in the Sports Articles section.
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Any older viewers recall Double Your Money? Well, my childhood hero Bobby Charlton appeared on the show and won the top prize! In a piece I wrote for When Saturday Comes, I explain how he did this .....also in Sports ....
Darlington-born poet Ralph Hodgson was involved in the production of three of the Great War’s most famous literary works. Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War was written in Japan, and RH was closely involved. Read all about it…
​Finally, a musical item. The jazz singer Cleo Laine sings The Ousel Cock, lyrics by Ralph Hodgson…Listen to her in the Theatre Articles section!
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The Ousel Cock
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I ASKED a cock blackbird,
Why did you choose black?
In the ages of old
When blackbirds were new
And questions of hue
Began to unfold —
With the rainbow to choose from,
Why did you pick black?
You mean, he replied,
That a blackbird’s no posy?
But that point aside.
This charge that we slighted
The rainbow of old: Are you nearsighted?
Black goes with gold
In a manner that dizzies
Our hens to behold
In the Spring of the year.
That's why we chose black
In the ages far back,
And how we got here,
If you need to be told
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In the coming months look out for Diana Dors on the terraces at Brentford and a new novel, Ghost Gig ....
26 November 2024
Hi Everyone
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It’s all Football in this issue, the main news being the return of Alex James! My biography of this legendary Scottish and Arsenal midfielder, probably the greatest inter-war player, has been magnificently re-issued by Empire Publications, the same publisher responsible for the Billy Meredith biography, Football Wizard.
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You can order a copy of the book here.​
Also, take a look at how cartoonists depicted Alex back in the 1930’s.
Worth a look are the offers that the football magazine Blizzard is making this Xmas. I attach the links:
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Poster link: https://theblizzard.co.uk/shop/merchandise/the-evolution-of-football/
Bundle link: https://theblizzard.co.uk/shop/bundles/print-digital-christmas-bundle/
Subscription link and code: BLZBUNDLE at https://theblizzard.co.uk/shop/subscribe/print-digital/
Best Xmas Wishes….
Welcome back to the Johnnyharding.com website!
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This edition carries a new sports article that appeared in Blizzard No 50. Writers were asked to describe a moment in their writing career that marked a turning point, and I wrote a piece that described how in 1979 I won a weekly football writing competition in the old Evening News and won a night out with sporting legend Pat!
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Here we are at the Sporting Club .....
25 September 2024
Also in this month’s edition, news that the Alex James biography will be issued in a new edition by Empire Publications of Manchester, the same publisher who produces the Billy Meredith biography. I attach a pic of the two great men in later years.
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Where Jack Kid Berg is concerned, here’s a great old post-war boxing referee Sid Nathan recalling him. Sid Nathan recalls boxing on the same bill as Jack Kid Berg.
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Plus a You Tube link to Jack training Kid Berg Trains For Coming Fights.
15 May 2024
Hi Everyone,
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Here’s the latest updates! Hope you enjoy them!
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The Jack Kid Berg interviews continue with Jack reminiscing about some great fighters of his time.
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Ralph Hodgson’s Friends continues with a look at his relationship with the poet Siegfried Sassoon.
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In the Sports Articles we consider one of Arsenal’s strangest coaches, the mysterious Victor Dane…
And finally, listen to Cleo Laine singing Songbirds, based on the Hodgson poem Stupidity Street. Hodgson was before his time as a fierce ecologist…the poem is a warning!
26th March 2024
Shelagh Delaney’s great play A Taste of Honey is being staged in Manchester at the Royal Exchange and has garnered some tremendous reviews (see below for the links).
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https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/event/a-taste-of-honey/
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https://ilovemanchester.com/review-a-taste-of-honey-at-the-royal-exchange-theatre
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My book about Delaney ‘Sweetly Sings Delaney’ is now available at the special discounted price! See the Greenwich Exchange website for more information…
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or just click on the Sweetly Sings Delaney cover on the website…
Rowan Robinson as Josephine & Jill Halfpenny as Helen in A Taste of Honey at The Royal Exchange Theatre
23rd February 2024
Dear Reader,
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New to the Johnnyharding website:
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Go to the book Football Wizard in the books section you will find a link to his story. It’s part of a football documentary made by the late Rod Hay. You’ll find myself and Gordon Taylor OBE talking about Billy along with some fascinating pictures.
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Next, the Finborough Theatre in West London recently stage Makeshifts by Gertrude Robins, one of the Manchester playwrights featured in Staging Life. Have a look at some of the press photos. Then take advantage of the Greenwich Exchange offer: The price of the book on the GE website is discounted from £18.99 to £13.99!
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Lastly, Sean Connery’s football career is featured in the article ShowBiz Football in the Sports Article section. Read more about his footballing days in the attached piece from the Daily Telegraph..
Happy reading!
John Harding
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24th January 2024
Dear Reader,
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Listen to Jack Kid Berg talking about his errant youth .
In the Sports Article section there’s a piece about that soccer hard-man Frank Barson. Buy the biography of him in the Books section.
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There’s more on the poet and Illustrator Ralph Hodgson. In the Theatre Articles section you can read about his friendship with T.S. Eliot and the latter's scheme to have Hodgson illustrate some of Eliot's poems
Hodgson with T.S. Eliot and dogs…
There's also a Spectator review of the Hodgson biography Dreaming of Babylon attached to the book link.
Finally, there a link to from the novel Stealing the Past to a plot-element…
Happy New Year!
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John
20th December 2023
Dear Reader,
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New to the Johnnyharding website:
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In the Theatre Articles section: listen to that great jazz singer Cleo Laine singing Time You Old Gypsy Man, taken from her album entitled ‘The Poems’ on QNote. Accompaniment is by Johnny Dankworth. Original lyrics by Ralph Hodgson.
In the Sports Articles section: the earliest football films are discussed in Reel of Fortune, first published in Blizzard magazine. You’ll find more about the writers responsible for such productions in Staging Life. Accompanying the article is a video clip of one of the film performers: Harold Walden.
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Finally, I attach a LINK from the Shelagh Delaney biography to Ken Russell’s BBC Monitor film Shelagh Delaney’s Salford. Listen to the playwright talking about her hometown. Then buy the book!
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Still available to listen to is Jack Kid Berg on his opponents, Stiffy singing his silly song, musical versions of Ralph Hodgson’s poems and much more!
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I hope you enjoy Johhnyharding.com. Pass the link on to others…
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Best Wishes,
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John
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1st December 2023
Hi Everyone,
Having listened to a couple of Ralph Hodgson’s poems put to music, why not buy his collected poems and read them for yourself? Go to the Books section and click on the cover of The Last Blackbird.
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There’s a new Jack Kid Berg interview to enjoy: this time Jack reminisces about meeting some of America’s hardest punchers!
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My book about Shelagh Delaney’s career entitled Sweetly Sings Delaney was considered by the TLS to be the best book about the playwright published so far. I attach a couple of links to the film of her hit play A Taste of Honey.
https://www.criterion.com/films/28734-a-taste-of-honey
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqYXXVY8AsY&t=13s
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Have a look – then buy my book!
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Hope you enjoy the new additions to the site .....
John
16th November 2023
In the Theatre Articles section (Ralph Hodgson’s Friends) you’ll find a new song, Eve. The singer is Peter Michael Rowan from his album NowHere (2004). You’ll also find the song’s lyrics which are taken from the Ralph Hodgson poem of the same name. It was one of Ralph Hodgson’s most popular poems from his early work.
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In the Sports Articles section, there is a new piece first published in Blizzard about Stiffy The Goalkeeper. Taken from a popular pre-1st World War Fred Karno sketch called the Football Match, Stiffy’s Song is performed by Harry Weldon who played the part of eponymous role..
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In the Books section there is a link that takes you to a documentary about arm-smuggling into South Africa during Apartheid times. It’s an issue that forms part of the backdrop to the novel Stealing The Past…