News of the World Football Annual 1997-8 (IP, £4.99 in UK)

Soccer-stat heaven, whether you want to know who scored for Manchester City in the 1904 FA Cup Final against Bolton Wanderers…

Soccer-stat heaven, whether you want to know who scored for Manchester City in the 1904 FA Cup Final against Bolton Wanderers, or where the gloriously-named Syd Puddefoot went when he left West Ham in 1922, or how much a referee gets for blowing his whistle on a Premiership match. Or, in the future tense, when Chelsea are scheduled to play Man United at Stamford Bridge. For most of its 111 editions this tiny, crammed book has been a best-of-British bastion, providing only the bare minimum of international information - but even here, as Albert Sewell notes in his introduction, "The foreigners are taking over", what with a smiling Ruud Gullit waving the Cup on the front cover and, inside, the reminder that the UK's footballers of the year for the past three years have been from out of town: Zola, Cantona and Klinsmann, in reverse order. What? Oh, yes, the answers. Meredith, Falkirk, £375 and February 28th.

Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace is a former Irish Times journalist