Scratching Shed Publishing

This is the story of Iby Knill, whose inspirational and moving account of holocaust survival was featured recently on the BBC television series My Story. In her book, Iby tells of her early childhood in Czechoslovakia and of how her parents – alarmed at the persecution of Jews in Germany – smuggled her over the border to Hungary. The Woman Without A Number also reveals how she was caught by the security police and then imprisoned and tortured, not only as a result of her Jewish connections but for having entered Hungary illegally and for aiding the resistance movement. Eventually, Iby was sent to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. In June 1944, Iby Knill left Auschwitz-Birkenau by volunteering to travel as a nurse with a slave labour transport of 500 women. Once transported to Lippstadt, she was put in charge of a hospital unit and risked her life protecting the weak and helpless from the gas chambers. Appearing for the first time in print, The Woman Without A Number is a truly remarkable tale that has waited sixty years to be told.

Yorkshire Football: A History is the story of club football, but from a distinctly white rose viewpoint. It captures intriguing, surprising and tragic events, and is filled with inspired characters from all the teams in the county, from the origins of the code through to its current metamorphosis. Club football was born in Sheffield in 1857 and sparred with rugby for supremacy elsewhere in Yorkshire before flourishing. As such, the white rose county has often been at the heart of the sport’s development; its clubs and administrators helping to mould and shape the most popular game. Far more than a mere chronicle of records set, trophies won, promotions gained or relegations endured, the book offers an enduring impression of how Yorkshire football has trailblazed its way through the last 150 or so years. The triumphs and tribulations of every professional team from the old three Ridings are featured – from Hull to Barnsley, Bradford City and Doncaster, via Leeds to Rotherham and all points beyond. Surveying the history of the game from the vantage points of Moors, Dales and Wolds of England’s largest – and proudest – county offers a unique perspective.

Founded in 1948, the Leeds-based Proscenium Players were the first Jewish Amateur Stage Group, regularly winning rave reviews for their varied artistic programme. Now, at long last, John Fisher, a leading light in the Pross’ productions and the organisation’s official chronicler, has charted their history in a book rich with photographs, bill postings, programmes and testimonials. It is a sparkling tale that will be of interest to locals and theatre historians alike. And one added bonus is that the book’s foreword is written by a very well known former Proscenium Player indeed – Leeds’ very own British comedy legend, Barry Cryer OBE. Bring up the curtain on An Audience of Curious People; a warmly-written book about theatre like no other.

When Gunner George Norman Davison returned to his hometown of Sheffield, England, upon the conclusion of the Second World War, he used the diary he had carried with him to write a vivid first-hand account of his experiences. These included the former insurance clerk’s initial training in the UK and posting to North Africa; his immediate separation from Irene, his newlywed wife; his subsequent capture and imprisonment in the desert camps of Libya; the seemingly endless, lonely and hungry minutes dreaming of food and home; his re-transportation to Italy; the cruelty and kindness of his captors there; and – finally – his escape with the aid of the Italian resistance across the border on Lake Como into Switzerland. Job done, Davison then put his remarkable story to one side before typing it up in manuscript form shortly before his death in 1986, whereupon it was rediscovered in a dusty attic by his only son, John. Alongside it was a battered old suitcase which contained yet more fascinating items, including each and every letter that Norman and Irene Davison had written to one another in those dark days from 1939 to 1946. Here, published for the very first time, Norman Davison’s story is finally given the public attention that it deserves. The result – In The Prison of his Days – is a singular tale of extraordinary times, that is by turns moving, amusing, informative and thrilling.