Books by David Potter

Newcastle United are a team that really should do better. They have a football-mad city all to themselves and fans as numerous and passionate as you will find anywhere. Yet their recent record is mediocre at best and poor at worst, with every fan painfully aware that 1955 was the last time they won a major English trophy. But it wasn't always like that. In the Magpies' glory days of well over 100 years ago, they were considered the best team in the world. They won the English league three times in five years, the English cup once and had several near misses, while supplying many players for the England and Scotland national teams. In this fascinating book, David Potter recreates the atmosphere of 'the Toon' in those distant days when men like McWilliam, Veitch, Higgins and Shepherd walked tall. Above all, that great era is a potent reminder to the current generation of Newcastle fans that 'it doesn't need to be like this'.

The Scottish League Cup has been keenly contested for 75 years. Unsurprisingly, the big Glasgow clubs have won it the most, but Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee, Raith Rovers, Livingston and East Fife have also had their moments in the sun. This book pays homage to each one of the 75 seasons, with a detailed account of every final.

This is the story of Celtic's love affair with the Scottish Cup, a trophy that has formed part of the club's identity since 1889. Romance, drama and passion are all bound up in Celtic's annual quest for the cup, involving great players, from the Sandy McMahon era to the days of Scott Brown.

To the practical modern mind, the idea of divine prophecy is more ludicrous than sublime. Yet to our cultural forebears in ancient Greece and Rome, prophecy was anything but marginal; it was in fact the basic medium for recalling significant past events and expressing hopes for the future, and it offered assurance that divinities truly cared about mere mortals. Prophecy also served political ends, and it was often invoked to support or condemn an emperor's actions. In Prophets and Emperors, David Potter shows us how prophecy worked, how it could empower, and how the diverse inhabitants of the Roman Empire used it to make sense of their world. This is a fascinating account of prophecy as a social, religious, and political phenomenon. The various systems of prophecy--including sacred books, oracles, astrological readings, interpretation of dreams, the sayings of holy men and women--come into sharp relief. Potter explores the use of prophecy as a nieans of historical analysis and political communication, and he describes it in the context of the ancient city. Finally, he traces the reformation of the prophetic tradition under the influence of Christianity in the fourth century. Drawing on diverse evidence--from inscriptions and ancient prophetic books to Greek and Roman historians and the Bible--Potter has produced a study that will engage anyone interested in the religions of the ancient Mediterranean and in the history and politics of the Roman Empire.

The Celtic v Rangers clash in Glasgow is one of football's major events, attracting a huge TV audience worldwide. Author David Potter revels in the joy that a victory over the old rivals brings to the Celtic support, reliving some of the club's greatest ever derby-day triumphs from the 1890s right up to date. Here is an expert selection of 50 such legendary occasions, rich in detail and atmosphere, and all the topic of fervent discussion over the years. We hear of Jimmy Quinn's hat-trick in 1904, the astonishing Scottish Cup semi-final of 1925, the 7-1 Scottish League Cup Final of 1957, the 4-0 thrashing in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final, the 6-2 'Demolition Derby' of 2000, plus many landmark games of a more recent vintage. Celtic's greatest players - Henrik Larsson, Jimmy McGrory, Patsy Gallacher, Charlie Tully, Jimmy Johnstone, Billy McNeill and Scott Brown - appear frequently in these pages, as do many others who all played their part in what is traditionally the greatest party of them all, when Celtic beat Rangers!

The third edition of David Potter's lively history, which tells the extraordinary story of Rome from its origins, through the Republic and Empire, to the period of its decline and fall.

The rulers of Renaissance France regarded war as hugely important. This book shows why, looking at all aspects of warfare from strategy to its reception, depiction and promotion.

The Dictionary of Jewish Proverbs offers the reader a comprehensive insight into the world of Jewish wisdom. A truly absorbing read, Jewish Wisdom will be an indispensable manual for all lovers of wisdom from whatever religious persuasion and an absolute goldmine of witty and wise things to say when the time is right.

The Emperors of Rome charts the rise and fall of the Roman Empire through profiles of the greatest and most notorious of the emperors.

'I am proud to say that I knew Jock Stein as a football manager, as a colleague and as a friend .

Literary Texts and the Roman Historian provides an accessible and concise introduction to the complexities of Roman historiography.

He was a tremendous player with pace, trickery, passing ability and a cannonball shot - yet his record of only one Scottish Cup medal, two Scottish League medals and two Scottish caps was a profoundly disappointing one for a man of his talent.

A biography of Alec Troup