It was widely regarded by readers and sports people as The Bible of S port in the West Midlands. If it wasn't in the A rgus, it wasn't worth knowing about.

The staple of the A rgus w as the coverage of The Big 6 - with all the latest news and up-to-date match reports on Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Coventry City, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. There was also amazing coverage of non-league and works football - at the time when Birmingham had more works l eague s than any other city in Europe.

R esults and match reports could be read within an hour of the final whistle. This book tells the astonishing story of the background frenzy to get t he publication ‘ off -st one ’ and ready for print . C opies were rushed to newsagents where huge queues would form as expectant readers waited , in eager anticipation , for someone to shout : ‘The vans coming! ’

Readers would marvel at the superb work of jou rnalists such as Ian Johnson, Leon Hickman , Ian Willars, Tom Duckworth, Charles Harrold, Denn is Shaw, Paul Marston, Colin Tattum, Peter White, Norman Worth, Rob Bishop and Bob Downing to name just a few. Many of the m hav e written exclusively for this book.

T he A rgus didn't just cover f ootball. It covered all kinds of sports. If it was played in the West Midlands, it was in the Arg u s. Some former top stars share their memories of being in the Argus : Pat Cowdell on boxing , Ann Jones on tennis, Dennis Amis s on cricket and Bob Weir on athletics.

This is a nostalgic re-opening of weekly time capsules that contained over 100 years of sporting history and is a fitting tribute to the sports men and women , and Argus staff who made it possible.

A donation from the money raised from this book will go to the Jeff Astle Foundation.