To celebrate 50 years of watching Manchester City, Steve Mingle presents an array of memories spanning the whole period. The Best and Worst of Everything includes heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters, moments of genius and heinous cock-ups. Here are Steve's most memorable games, players and incidents in a weird and wonderful range of categories. There's much to look back on with affection - the best wins at Old Trafford, the Goat's spawniest finishes, Bell's finest goals, the best wins with ten men - but also plenty of pain, as Steve looks back on the worst goalkeeping howlers, City's jinxes and the biggest villains ever to have darkened the club's doorways. Amongst all this, Steve selects his favourite hard men, pie-eaters and comedy moments as well as providing hard statistical input - who have really been City's penalty kings? Who do we wish we could have played every week? It's a fascinating book packed with memories good and bad, full of debating points for City fans of all ages.

The story so far. Manchester City end the 2003-04 season relieved at having narrowly escaped relegation. There've been highs and lows, but the lows have been desperate and the highs restricted to minor triumphs of promotions and occasional derby wins. Meaningful silverware hasn't been delivered since 1976. Kevin Keegan looks like he's lost the will to live, let alone manage City, and the transfer kitty is bare. Eight years later, they've won the Premier League in the final seconds of the most dramatic match in the history of football. From Balti Pies to The Biggest Prize relives the journey from perpetual also-rans to champions, from laughing stocks to a team to be feared, fuelled by the injection of unimaginable finance. The money has changed the calibre of the team on the field but how much has it changed its fanbase, its culture, its soul? Steve Mingle's book gives a unique perspective on exactly how it feels to be City today.

Lows, Highs and Balti Pies comprises vivid, colourful and highly individual recollections of City's most memorable games over the past 37 years. One hundred matches are featured, starting with a 5-2 drubbing of Sheffield United in 1967 and ending with the 4-1 triumph in the first derby at the cursed City of Manchester Stadium. Not all of the games in between provided quite as much pleasure. The book contains affectionate portraits of the City greats down the years, together with forthright appraisals on the rich assortment of blundering buffoons which the club has seen fit to inflict upon its famously loyal supporters. However, even when describing the club's darkest moments and the individuals responsible for them, humour is never far away - be it biting, dry, self-deprecating or just plain daft. This approach captures perfectly the essence of what it is to be a City fan. The book also embraces diverse elements of popular culture over the period. Musical reference points abound, whilst the likes of Sid Waddell, Curly Watts, Ian Hislop, Tony the Tiger and Cyanide Sid Cooper all somehow find themselves featuring in the story. And how the hell did Albert Pierrepoint get in there?The games chosen generally present a balanced picture of the club's ups and downs over the years but - even in the interests of fair-mindedness - the author can't bring himself to include any of the numerous defeats suffered at the hands of Manchester United. After reading the book, you'll understand why. When it comes to United, we are not dealing with a fair-minded man. All long-term followers of football causes will be well familiar with the emotional peaks and troughs described so strikingly in this book. Most, like the author, will have experienced more troughs than peaks. But it's the range of imaginative, often scarcely credible, ways in which City have brought both highs and lows into the lives of their fans which truly sets them apart. It's a remarkable story, vibrantly and entertainingly told.