" Racing, the most colourful of sports, holds many in thrall. Some can't resist it because they love horses, others because they own horses, ride or train horses, and of course a huge number enjoy the betting. Racing embraces them all, and this bedside book of racing stories, anecdotes, reminiscences, poems and observations is as varied and rich as the racing scene itself. Many of the great names of racing, past and present, are included, as well as others that are less expected: Jeffrey Bernard, Jack Leach, Dick Francis, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Benjamin Disraeli, David Ashforth, Anthony Trollope, Siegfried Sassoon, Rudyard Kipling, Philip Larkin, Emile Zola, and more. The six sections in the book encompass Horses, Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, the Players and the great Racing Festivals. Stories that bring out the worst and the best in human nature sit side by side. There are over fifty entries of enticing and gripping reading. Julian Bedford, racing journalist, has delved deep and searched wide to bring together a bedside book that must be the perfect gift and bedside companion for every racing man and woman."